Arson suspected as tourists flee fires
FRANCE: French officials blamed arsonists yesterday for the wildfires on the Riviera that have forced thousands of residents and holidaymakers to flee to emergency shelters.
Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, visited the scene of the fire, which started on open ground beside a caravan site.
Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence-alpes-cote d’azur region, said that the blaze was ‘‘without doubt of criminal origin’’.
He added: ‘‘This is a disaster for the Var departement [in Provence]. We are going to do everything to find the people responsible for this fire.’’
Firefighters were at full stretch protecting houses and hamlets, sometimes stopping the blaze a few metres from homes as the flames swept towards the resort of Bormes-les-mimosas.
Firefighters, backed up by water-bombing aircraft, were bringing the blaze under control nearly 24 hours after it broke out at La Londe-les-maures and tore through pine-covered hillsides near campsites and holiday villages on Wednesday.
As a strong wind propelled the fire towards Bormes-les-mimosas, a picturesque spot 30 kilometres from Saint Tropez, emergency workers warned people to leave campsites and other lodgings and escorted more than 10,000 to gymnasiums and other centres at the resort. No injuries were reported but at least two houses were destroyed.
Marion, a woman who lives nearby, said: ‘‘We were woken by the light of the fire coming through the shutters. There were flames 15 metres high. We got into the car and we left. It’s terrible. There’s nothing left. Now everything has been destroyed, we have lost our work, the surroundings of our life.’’
People described gathering their belongings under falling ash as hillside flames lit up the night sky.
The outbreak followed a dozen others this week that have ravaged a total of 10,000 hectares along the Mediterranean coast, in the Provence region of Luberon, the Maritime Alps and northern Corsica.
Experts said this season’s devastation, which resulted from months without rain and intense heat since the spring, was part of a pattern that would intensify with climate change.
Local authorities again tried to warn people of the extreme danger of throwing away cigarettes or lighting fires. – The Times