Sawt Falasteen - Fire-hit France region 'coming up for air' as main blaze calms

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 told AFP.

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".

"It was panic. We didn't get any warning. We just had time to grab our two cats and flee by car... picking up a neighbour along the way," she recalled.

"Our neighbours, who have vineyards, were trying to put out the flames with branches and a fire extinguisher we gave them."

Hundreds of firefighters have been drafted in, along with planes and helicopters.

Temperatures have reached 38C in Var, which is under an orange heat wave alert until Saturday midday.

Fuel transport and gas cooker lighters are banned throughout the region until Monday morning.

Across the country in the Gironde region, locals and officials were coming to terms with a fire that had ravaged 42,000 hectares.

The authorities said the blaze had been stabilised thanks to "favourable" overnight conditions.

Firefighters would now need to clear woodland undergrowth and tackle the fire's edges towards the dunes.

At least 200 homes were destroyed and two firemen killed in the fires.

Y.Zaher--SF-PST