French firefighters battled for a second day to contain its biggest wildfire in nearly eight decades, which has burnt over 16,000 hectares and killed one person.
An elderly woman died in her home, one person is missing and two people were injured, one of whom is now in critical condition with severe burns, as of yesterday, according to the Aude prefecture.
Plumes of smoke were seen rising over the forest area in the region of Aude in southern France.
"As of now, the fire has not been brought under control," Christophe Magny, one of the officials leading the firefighting operation told BFM TV.
Planes have been dropping water on the flames.
The blaze near the border with Spain towards the Mediterranean Sea began earlier this week and has already swept through an area bigger than Paris.
Officials have said it is France's biggest wildfire since 1949.
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou described the wildfire as a "catastrophe on an unprecedented scale" triggered by global warming.
"What is happening today is linked to global warming and linked to drought," Mr Bayrou said yesterday on a visit to the Aude department of France.
An investigation has been opened into the cause of the fire, said local officials.
The wildfire is the biggest in France so far in a summer which has already seen some 9,000 fires, mainly along the Mediterranean coast, according to the emergency management service.
The Aude department in particular has seen an increase in areas burnt in recent years, aggravated by low rainfall and the uprooting of vineyards, which used to help slow down the advance of fires.
Scientists say the Mediterranean region's hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires.
