00:00Southern France is in the grip of two wildfires made worse by last week's heat wave.
00:06A blaze near Narbonne forced the closure of the A9 motorway, land the equivalent of 2,000 rugby pitches,
00:11has been destroyed in the wake of a fast-spreading blaze.
00:16Meanwhile, Marseille's airport has been forced to close by a wildfire that sent smoke over the port city.
00:21We understand this beginning when a car caught fire.
00:25James Vassana has this.
00:26Stay indoors and away from the roads so that emergency services can get around.
00:34The advice given to residents of Marseille this Tuesday.
00:41Firefighters are working to protect Marseille.
00:45It's best that residents stay indoors to avoid the smoke.
00:50And please remain calm. Do not drive. Do not go and pick anyone up.
00:56A thick cloud of smoke has surrounded the city and ashes are falling from the sky after a car caught fire on the motorway in the nearby town of Pen-Mirabeau.
01:08The car set the whole hill on fire and then it spread to our homes, so we had to evacuate.
01:14The flames were 20 to 30 metres high. It was impressive.
01:17While winds have caused the fire to grow quickly, authorities say that the situation is under control.
01:26Marseille's airport closed at noon.
01:28Roads have been cut off and some train services have been suspended.
01:33Authorities had already warned on Monday that the strong winds increased the chance of fires breaking out in the southeastern region.
01:40And over 700 firefighters are tackling the blaze.
01:46James Vassner there. Let's go to the south of France.
01:48Chris Bachman is waiting to lose for us.
01:50Chris, a very good evening to you.
01:52What is the latest you can tell us on this situation?
01:54Two fires threatening the south of France.
01:56Indeed. And, Mark, more than 1,500 people are actually involved in these two fires, putting it on two fronts.
02:04They're only about three hours away from each other, but they're absolutely dangerous.
02:08The one in Marseille, the prefect, has said in the last hour and a half that let the emergency services defend the city.
02:14Those are his words, not mine.
02:16That gives you an idea.
02:17It's literally licking the 16th arrondissement.
02:20Many people will know that part of Marseille is being in an area which is considered kind of the badlands
02:24because you've got some pretty rough housing states with drug use and gang warfare.
02:28But it's not just that.
02:29There's a lot of individual homes near Scrubland.
02:32There's even some farms there as well.
02:34It's not all just housing states.
02:36And it's also going towards a small area called Estac, which is quite popular amongst tourists as well.
02:41These fires happen every year.
02:43They do come close to Marseille, but this is really early in the season.
02:46This is very big.
02:47It's very fast and it's requiring enormous resources.
02:51Well, like I said, just three hours away near Narbonne, the main motorway which links Montpellier down to Barcelona is closed
02:57because there's a massive wildfire which has been going on there for 36 hours.
03:02And hundreds of hectares of land has been destroyed there.
03:05And there's also some really amazing national parks and beautiful villages that tourists will know.
03:09If I mentioned Bages and Periac, everyone here knows about them.
03:12They're under threat as well.
03:13And what's really sad about this is that the one in Marseille was caused by a car.
03:19And the ones that were started here was also by initially someone who didn't put out their barbecue correctly.
03:26What we're doing with the barbecue out in this kind of heat wave, I don't know.
03:29But it's actually down to human nature.
03:31And that is one of the very sad facts of the whole affair, Chris, isn't it?
03:36The weather is set to be hot again, having a renewal of the heat wave, not quite the same intensity.
03:42But nonetheless, this isn't going to help matters, is it?
