On Place du Platane, in the small village of Jonquières, France, T-shirts are once again drying in the sun on doorsteps. The clouds of ash and smoke that soaked into clothing during the great fire that raged in the Corbières mountain range, in the south of the country, from August 5 to 9 have given way to pure air.

Now it was time to clean. The community hall, which served as a rallying point for firefighting teams from all over France for two weeks, was being cleared out, and the carpet of scorched leaves, fallen from trees under the heat of the blaze, was being swept up. On his quad bike loaded with water, François Mir set out "to wash and refresh" his 20 or so fruit trees early on Thursday morning, August 14. His orchard had been spared, but now needed regular watering to help it recover from the stress of the fire.

A stone's throw away, at the eastern entrance to this village of 46 residents in the heart of the Corbières, red and white tape cordoned off the burned houses. Of the 36 homes consumed by the wildfire during its five-day rampage across nearly 17,000 hectares, 10 were located here. Combined with the fact that nearly 100% of the town's land was burned, Jonquières paid the heaviest price to the flames.

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