PARIS (REUTERS, AFP) - One person has been found dead as French firefighters battled through the night to contain a wildfire in the hills behind the coastal resort of Saint-Tropez, the regional government said on Wednesday (Aug 18).
A government official for the Var region, where the fire broke out on Monday, said the blaze had still not been contained.
Around 20 other people were suffering from inhaling smoke from the fire, whose flames could be seen across much of the Var area.
Hundreds of firefighters struggled for a third day on Wednesday to contain France's worst wildfire of the summer, which has forced thousands of residents and tourists to flee.
The blaze has scorched some 5,000ha in a region known for its forests, vineyards and fauna since it broke out in the Plaine des Maures nature reserve on Monday evening.
The fire "had not spread" during the night but "that does not mean it is under control", said the fire service spokesman for the Var region, Mr Franck Graciano.
"We will carry out the same basic work as yesterday by dropping water on the critical places," he said.
Some 1,200 firefighters were deployed, using high-pressure hoses and water-bombing planes and helicopters to control the flames.
High temperatures and strong winds forced the local authorities to evacuate around 7,000 people from homes and campsites, the Var prefecture said on Tuesday, many to the safety of municipal buildings and schools.
Among them were 1,300 people staying at a campsite in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas, down the coast from Saint-Tropez.
Other fled the village of La-Garde-Freinet, but there were no new evacuations overnight, the fire service said on Wednesday.
"We started smelling the smoke around 7pm, then we saw the flames on the hill," said Ms Cindy Thinesse, who fled a campsite near Cavalaire on Monday evening.
"We hesitated, but when we saw that, we decided to leave," she told AFP.
The coming hours will be "absolutely decisive" for the firefighting effort, President Emmanuel Macron, who has been taking his summer break on the Mediterranean coast, said during a visit to first responders on Tuesday evening.
While Mr Macron added that "the battle is ongoing and the fire has not yet been contained, stabilised", he commended the firefighters' courage.
Large blazes have already ravaged parts of Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco this year.
The Mediterranean basin has long faced seasonal wildfires linked to its dry and hot weather in the summer, but climate scientists warn that they will become increasingly common because of man-made global warming.
The French fire is believed to have started near a motorway stop some 30km north-west of Saint-Tropez.
"We've never seen it spread with such speed - it was three or four times the usual," Mayor Thomas Dombry of La Garde-Freinet village told AFP.
The authorities were counting the cost to the environment even as the fires still raged on Tuesday.
"Half of the Plain des Maures nature reserve has been devastated," deputy director Concha Agero of the French Office of Biodiversity said on Tuesday.
Charred power lines lay on the ground on Tuesday, and many trees were burned around their trunks but their branches were intact, suggesting the fire had ripped through at speed.
But after a calm night on Tuesday, technicians began trying to restore phone and electricity lines on Wednesday.
