The alarm has been raised over the increased likelihood of wildfires in parts of southern France. The prefect of Pyrénées-Orientales department says the lack of rain and wind gusts of up to 90km/h predicted on Tuesday mean the risk was now ‘very severe’. Authorities are trying to avoid a repeat of France’s first major forest fire of the year, which burned up to 1,000 hectares of land in Pyrénées-Orientales. It comes after some areas of the department were last week placed under a drought ‘crisis’ level due to lack of water. …The department also banned the sale of above-ground pools to prevent residents from being “tempted” to break drought rules and fill them up. …With water scarce, firefighters say they are having to turn to the sea and rivers for supplies.