Thousands flee wildfires in Med
Joan Collins abandons villa as ‘apocalyptic’ blazes ravage French Riviera
DAME Joan Collins was one of thousands forced to evacuate their homes as fires raged along the French Riviera and across southern Europe yesterday.
The ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires, sparked by yaa series of heatwaves across the region, comeme as many Britons prepare to set off on theireir summer holidays this week.
Yesterday popular tourist destinations, includuding large parts of the French Riviera, Corsica ica and central Portugal, were among those stilltill being ravaged by the blazes, which threatenedd to destroy homes and resorts. More than a dozen areas along the Riviera coast alone have been engulfed, with hundreds of homes evacuated.
Emergency services last night continued to work around the clock to battle the infernos, which are being fanned by high winds and have consumed nearly 10,000 acres of vegetation.
French authorities said eight firemen and 15 police officers have been hurt, although no fatalities have yet been reported.
The country’s civil security authority last night asked the European Union for help in dealing with the major incident.
It also asked for ten Canadair water bomber aircraft to tackle the wildfires, described by witnesses as ‘apocalyptic’.
The resorts of Frejus, SainteMaxime and Toulon were graded as being at an ‘ exceptional’ risk, with experts warning that contin- ued strong winds this week would see more areas affected – and could cause flames in nearly-contained areas to flare up again.
One fire that erupted late on Monday near the La Croix-Valmer resort and yacht-filled marinas of Saint-Tropez sent clouds of thick black smoke into the sky above the packed beaches.
Flames burned across some 2,000 acres in the region, with two villas destroyed in the hills where Dynasty star Dame Joan was staying just a few miles west of St Tropez.
The 84-year-old and ten others at her multi-million-pound holiday home, where the actress spends four months of the year, were evacuated late on Monday.
Tweeting a picture of the blazing hills yesterday, Dame Joan wrote: ‘Luckily we were able to evacuate last night, not easy with 11 people in the house!’ In a statement, she said: ‘All 11 family and friends are safe after abandoning our villa due to the fierce forest fires threatening our home.’
She later claimed the fire had been started by a barbecue, adding: ‘All seems ok although fire still burning started by BarBQ.’
Local authorities said more than 100 people were evacuated and thousands of acres destroyed in and around St Tropez.
Michel Bernier, of France’s civil defence forces, added: ‘It’s a very dangerous day.’
Another fire that scorched at least 2,000 acres in Luberon was believed to be under control yesterday morning, local firefighters said. But one of the largest blazes was last night still ripping through swathes of hillside on the island of Corsica off the French coast. More than 5,000 acres of forest were engulfed after the fire erupted on Monday night, with residents evacuated from their homes at the edge of the town of Biguglia.
One of the blazes along the French Riviera was thought to have been started by a bolt of lightning. However carelessly discarded cigarettes are often blamed for set- ting the tinderbox area alight. Fires have erupted across much of southern Europe in recent weeks amid extremely high temperatures and dry weather during the peak holiday season.
In Portugal firefighters were yesterday continuing the country’s summertime battle against wildfires, which last month claimed the
lives of 64 people. More than 100 forest fires erupted on Sunday, with 5,000 firefighters deployed across central and northern Portugal. The Civil Protection Agency said it had managed to bring under control all but one of the 108 fires by Monday.
On Sunday a forest fire in Croatia triggered 34 explosions thought to be mines left over from the war in the 1990s. An earlier blaze had spread to southern Croatia from Montenegro.