An additional 500 people will be evacuated on Wednesday from the area west of Bordeaux, where a forest fire has been raging since Monday, local authorities report.

Earlier, more than eight hundred residents of the Gironde department had to leave their homes.

A thousand firefighters fight the fire, using eleven fire fighting helicopters and planes. Seven firefighters suffered minor injuries. The fire has now reduced more than 3,600 hectares to ashes. However, the weather forecast is unfavourable: it will remain dry and hot, with winds that could fan the fires.

The department has launched a judicial investigation into the cause of the fire, which broke out in the town of Saumos on Monday afternoon.

Last summer, France was already ravaged by several large forest fires. Almost 65,000 hectares went up in flames, almost 30,000 in the Gironde department.