Forest fires erupt in France amid new heat wave

Forest fires raged in southwestern France, destroying 16 homes, burning 6,000 hectares of farmland and forcing nearly 6,000 people to evacuate the area that was hit by massive fires last month.

France, like the rest of Europe, is suffering from heat waves and drought that have caused multiple forest fires across the continent in the past two months.

"The fire is raging and is now spreading to the Landes region," local authorities in the grape-growing Gironde said in a statement, adding that 500 firefighters had been mobilized.

Last July, the Gironde region in southwestern France witnessed two massive fires that destroyed more than 20,000 hectares of forest and forced about 40,000 people to leave their homes.

On Tuesday, fires also broke out in other parts of the country, one of which is in the Loisire and Aveyron regions of southern France, where nearly 600 hectares have already burned, and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is scheduled to visit the two regions later in the day.

Another fire broke out in the Maine-et-Loire region in western France, consuming 650 hectares and threatening another 500 hectares, according to local authorities.

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