Terror as thousands flee resort inferno
BRITISH holidaymakers told of their terror after fleeing for their lives as wildfires threatened upmarket resorts on the French Riviera.
They joined more than 10 000 including celebrities and royalty who were forced from homes, hotels and campsites in the middle of the night.
They described pine trees lit up like matches as the tinderbox forests at the back of the Riviera went up in flames. One said the night sky of southern France was “like Dante’s Inferno”. As the fires raged for a third day, leaving normally blue skies black with smoke, one local politician said: “It is a disaster area. There is nothing left.”
Tourists were forced to sleep on beaches in makeshift camps. Anne Davies, from Cardiff, woke at a campsite in Bormes-les-Mimosas to discover the hills were ablaze. “We’ve been coming here for 34 years and I’ve never seen fires this big,” said Davies, 74.
“When I looked back, the whole of the hillside was on fire. I was very frightened, particularly as I can’t run that fast any more. The beach was full of people fleeing from the fire and there must have been about 50 children in buggies with worried parents.”
Last night she, her 76-year-old husband John and friends David Heslop, 81, and his wife Carolyn, 78, were spending their second night on the beach. Heslop said: “My biggest fear was the wind was going to change. The fire would have engulfed us. There must be 500 gas canisters and 500 petrol tanks in the campsite. It would have been carnage.”
Retired teacher Ros Roberts, 64, from Ludlow, Shropshire, was with her husband Bruce in their caravan at Camp du Domaine. She said: “An alarm began to ring out, then cars came around with sirens and a loud hailer telling everyone to move to the beach. We could see and smell the black smoke.”
Journalist Lisa Minot, who was at a forest campsite, said: “There are very strong winds, and this is what is hampering the efforts to fight the fire, because they really cannot predict where the flames are going to go next.”
The fires have been blamed on lightning, braais and discarded cigarettes, although Bormes mayor Francois Arizzi said it was arson. – Daily Mail