French Wildfire: Two Charged for Lighting Fireworks as Blaze Rages

Three men have been arrested in southern France on suspicion of endangering lives. Two of them are charged with lighting fireworks while the country’s largest wildfire continues to burn in the same area. The men were arrested in the Gironde region on Saturday, according to French prosecutors, as reported by news agency AFP. The fire in Gironde, in southwestern France, has now burned over 1,000 square kilometers. Authorities say it is one of the country’s worst natural disasters since World War II. More than 220,000 people have been evacuated. The fire is now just 30 kilometers from Bordeaux, France’s sixth-largest city with 1.2 million residents. An additional 55,000 people were ordered to leave villages near Bordeaux late Saturday as flames spread. Another 30,000 have been evacuated from the neighboring Landes region to the south, where a separate wildfire is also burning.