France’s largest wildfire since 1949 extinguished after two months

French authorities announced on Monday that the fire that burned 420,000 hectares in Gironde has been extinguished, two months after it began. The Somos forest fire, considered the largest in France since 1949, “is now out”, the prefecture said in a statement.

The front broke out on July 22 from Somos, in the Landes de Gascony massif, and threatened the tourist region from Cap Ferret to the outskirts of Bordeaux. About 224,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in a massive operation organized by the authorities, until the fire was considered “under control” on August 1. However, small parts of it continued to burn for several weeks.

On Monday, after eight weeks, the fire department and all services involved in the operation announced that the fire was fully extinguished, the prefecture announced, stressing that there were no victims.

A total of 3,300 firefighters from all over France joined forces with soldiers, police, forest rangers, farmers and volunteers in the largest firefighting operation in the modern history of the Civil Protection service, noted the prefect of Gironde, Sophie Brocas.

The Somos fire was the largest recorded in France since that of 1949, also in Landes de Gascony, which had burned approximately 500,000 hectares.