Yahoo TV

STORY: More than 1,000 firefighters and eight aircraft were deployed to fight the blazes, which have struck France at the height of its worst-ever drought and on the eve of a fresh heatwave that's expected to see temperatures top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Thursday.

Martin Guespereau, who is leading the fight against the fire told reporters that the blaze had created its own winds that made its course unpredictable. He said the fight was complicated by the fact that fire had reached layers of peat in the woodlands, making even harder to damp down.

Several thousand people including the inhabitants of a local retirement home have had to be evacuated, Guesperau said.