A scorched southwestern France braces itself for fires to come

A view shows a forest parcel from which trees burned by the last summer's wildfires have been removed, in Landiras, in the Gironde region, France, March 20, 2023. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

HOSTENS, France (Reuters) - As France frets about an extended drought and prospects for more wildfires in another long summer, one blaze that erupted eight months ago in the southwest of the country still smoulders away underground.

Columns of white, acrid smoke rise from a forest floor outside the town of Hostens in the Gironde region, south of Bordeaux. The smell of burning tyres is caused by the brown coal in the area's peaty soil which is fuelling the fire underground.