Major wildfires are burning across southern France, with the largest blazes consuming about 900 hectares in Aude and three fires near Marseille affecting some 1,210 hectares, and emergency services deploy roughly 800 firefighters and four Canadair water-bomber planes to battle the flames.Authorities have evacuated more than 2,000 people from campsites near Fréjus, report that a 260-hectare blaze at Lançon-Provence is now under control, and warn that six Mediterranean departments remain on very high fire alert as strong winds and drought drive rapid fire growth and smoke hazards.Interior Minister
Laurent Nunez and Prime Minister
Sebastien Lecornu are coordinating the response from Marseille, officials say no deaths have been reported, and they caution that renewed extreme heat next week and continued drought will escalate risks after a heat wave earlier this year that may have caused at least 1,000 excess deaths.