Three men in New Caledonia have been jailed for illegally lighting huge bush fires in October.
One of them was jailed for one year and the other two for two years after the criminal court found them guilty of causing the fires near Bangou in the area of Paita.
Reports say when they set the fires, they were drunk.
Initially, the blazes burnt about 10 hectares, before a much larger fire destroyed 16 square kilometres of vegetation.
It forced evacuations of residents and briefly closed the main highway north of Noumea as well as affecting operations at the international airport in Tontouta.
After a dry winter, a territory-wide fire ban has been in force for month.
