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Major wildfire between Marseille and Nice, at least 400 people evacuated
- About four hundred residents of the area have fled, more than 2,500 hectares of nature have been destroyed.
- An unknown number of residents and firefighters had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
- The fire is now under control, but that does not mean it has gone out everywhere.
- It was not a quiet night, the director of the departmental fire brigade told French channel BFMTV.
A large wildfire is raging in the southern French department of Var, between Marseille and Nice. About four hundred residents of the area have fled, more than 2,500 hectares of nature have been destroyed. An unknown number of residents and firefighters had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The fire is now under control, but that does not mean it has gone out everywhere. "It was not a quiet night, the director of the departmental fire brigade told French channel BFMTV. “The fire continued to spread and came dangerously close to the villages of Cotignac, Montfort-sur-Argens and Correns.
"I had to leave everything behind, a Cotignac resident told the news channel. "I had no choice. I was surrounded by smoke, I couldn't breathe.
A woman from Sillans-la-Cascade cried as she left her home behind. “I cried because my chickens are there. I opened everything, I hope they could escape.
I'm desperate, we don't know if the house burned down. The fire brigade managed to save one hundred to one hundred and fifty houses that were in immediate danger. It is not known how many houses have been lost.
The 17th-century St. Joseph Monastery, near Cotignac, and Catholic church in the village were saved. The fire broke out yesterday and spread unexpectedly quickly. More than a thousand firefighters are deployed to combat the fire.
They receive help from two fire-fighting planes and fire-fighting helicopters. The weather conditions are unfavorable. It will remain hot in the coming days with temperatures above 30 degrees.
This is accompanied by moderate to fairly strong winds during the day. Still, the fire brigade thinks the worst is behind us. "We have pushed back the fire, it is no longer spreading quickly, the director of the departmental fire brigade told French channel France 24. "Despite that, it is still burning in many places, so we are very alert this morning.
Also in the Gironde In the Gironde, in western France, two firefighters died while fighting another wildfire. In France, 40,000 hectares of forest and nature have already been lost in wildfires this year. That is much more than in all of last year, says the weather service Météo-France. The cause is the exceptionally dry weather.
Source: NOS