According to reports from France Bleu, 165 people had to be evacuated and the Géhant forest closed out of precaution.
The fire, the cause of which remains to be determined, began on Saturday afternoon and kept several fire brigades working all through the night. The humidity during that period allowed firefighters to make progress, but the fight is not yet won.
200 firefighters are on location as reinforcements from Meurthe-et-Moselle, including several firefighting helicopters, arrived to help get the flames under control.
In conversation with France Bleu, secretary general of the Voges prefecture David Percheron described the fire as more severe than that in Mortagne and as one of unprecedented proportions in Les Voges.
Percheron referred to a fire which destroyed 15 hectares of forests near the commune of Mortagne on Wednesday. Close to 80 firefighters, 30 police officers, and a helicopter had to be deployed to get the situation under control. A crisis task force was established in the prefecture and firefighters from five different brigades came in as reinforcement.
On Saturday, an additional 500 hectares fell victim to a reigniting fire near Mostuéjouls in the south of France. This brings the total amount of land burned since last Monday to 1,260 hectares. Furthermore, it led to the preventive evacuation of around 1,000 people, conveyed a statement from the prefecture.
The fire, which already seemed to be on the verge of extinguishing on Saturday afternoon, came back with a fury in the later afternoon. Reinforcements from at least three different departments arrived around 1am on Sunday, bringing the total number of deployed firefighters to 600.
