In the Pyrenees region of southern France, a 32-year-old wine-grower was arrested on Thursday and accused of using a cigarette stub to light a fire in a municipal rubbish dump which engulfed an area of 5,000 square metres, including both the dump and surrounding scrubland.

He is then alleged to have raised the alarm but was reported to the authorities by a neighbour.

A homeless man of 59 will appear in court in Grenoble in southeast France accused of trying to set fire to bushes with burning tissues on a hill overlooking the city on Thursday.

He was seen by people in the area who put out the fire and called the police.

Arson carries a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in gaol, rising to life imprisonnment if there are casualties.

More than 30,000 hectares of woodland have burned in southeastern France and Corsica since the start of the summer, according to civil security officers -- the worst damage reported in the region in more than 25 years.

But in recent days winds have dropped and exhausted firefighters have managed to control and extinguish blazes on France's Mediterranean coast.

The French government has vowed to punish severely anyone caught starting forest fires, and identity checks have been introduced around high-risk areas to deter would-be arsonists.

"Those who continue to show criminal negligence or who deliberately light fires must know that the state will do all it can to find them and punish them, with all the severity demanded by the extreme gravity of their acts," President Jacques Chirac said during a cabinet meeting Thursday.

Local officials said most of the outbreaks were accidental, likely caused by cigarette ends, barbecues, sparks from machinery or even discarded bottles acting like magnifying glasses.

TERRA.WIRE