PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of firefighters are steadily wrestling under control France's first major forest fire of the year, which has ripped through swaths of woods and scrub straddling the country's southern border with Spain.

Rescue services spokesman Arnaud Wilm told broadcaster FranceInfo on Monday morning that the blaze is being successfully contained and that its biggest flames have been extinguished but fire crews have yet to completely stop its spread and put it out.

He said more than 500 firefighters remain on hand.

The blaze erupted Sunday and burned on hundreds of hectares (acres) of land between Banyuls-sur-Mer and Cerbère on the Mediterranean coast, and spread across the border into Spain.