LGE FERRET: People in France’s fire-hit southwest were “coming up for air”, officials said Friday, after firefighters managed to stabilise a massive blaze that had burned for nine days.

Most of the 220,000 people who had been evacuated from the flames, which at one stage seemed to be heading for the city of Bordeaux, have now been allowed home.

“The crisis isn’t over, the fire isn’t under control yet, but we’re making progress,” said Sophie Brocas, prefect of the southwestern Gironde region.

“We’re coming up for air.” But another blaze in the southeastern Var region flared up and was threatening villages roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Marseille, forcing the evacuation of 2,500 people.

Strong winds were fanning the flames the Var fire, which spread rapidly and burnt 1,000 hectares in just a few hours, officials said.

“The fire is spreading, fuelled by the mistral wind,” senior provincial official Simon Babre said.

Human-caused climate change has made the extreme conditions that are fuelling infernos in western Europe twice as likely than in a pre-industrial climate in France, scientists said this week.

People in Var were jolted into the reality that their countrymen hundreds of miles to the west have been living through for the past week.

Emma Leray, who lives in the fire-hit village of Correns, said she saw her “garden in flames”.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2026