Satellite images revealed the scope of destruction in the south of France where an area larger than the country's capital Paris has been turned into ashes by a massive wildfire.

Firefighters in France have contained the country's largest wildfire in decades, but authorities remain on high alert because of high heat that could reignite the flames.

Prime Minister François Bayrou described the nearly 40,000-acre fire, which has killed one person, as a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale.”