PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of firefighters were battling Monday to control France’s first big blaze of the year, devouring forests and scrub along the country’s southern border with Spain.
The fire has been successfully brought under control and the most important flames have been extinguished, spokesman for the emergency services, Arnaud Wilm, told FranceInfo on Monday morning. However, firefighters had not yet succeeded in completely stopping the spread of the fire and extinguishing it.
More than 500 firefighters remained in the area, he said.
The fire broke out on Sunday and burned hundreds of hectares of land between Banyuls-sur-Mer and Cerbère, on the Mediterranean coast, as well as the border with Spain.