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.

France’s biggest wildfire in years was spreading quickly Wednesday in a Mediterranean region near Spain after leaving one person dead and several injured, authorities said. The fire burned an area larger than Paris,

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