Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hell for tourists as they flee wildfires
10,000 evacuated from resorts as firefighters struggle to control blaze
HUNDREDS of terrified British tourists fled and took refuge on beaches yesterday as wildfires ravaged the French Riviera.
More than 10,000 people had to be evacuated from resorts as the raging flames threatened to engulf them.
Some 4,000 emergency workers were battling to control the inferno on the coast’s densely forested mountainsides.
Among those led to safety during the night were Diana and John Wardill, from Guisborough, North Yorkshire. They jumped in their car when the blaze got too close to their home in St Tropez.
Mrs Wardill, 70, said: “It happened so quickly. As soon as the flames touched an umbrella pine, it just crackled up. It sounds a cliché but it was just like a tinder box. It took hold so quickly”
The fires on the Riviera and in Corsica started on Monday. The flames are being fanned by strong Mistral winds and the unpredictable wind direction makes the fire virtually impossible to contain.
Many Brits evacuated from holiday homes, cabins and tents in Bormes-lesmimosas slept on the beach. Some were woken by campsite staff on Tuesday night as the fires became more intense.
Actress Dame Joan Collins, 84, aban- doned her house near St
Tropez on Monday.
Sheldon Cole, a tax consultant from Taunton,
Somerset, was with his family in Le Lavandou near Bormes-les-mimosas, when the fire struck. A blaze near the resort town was brought under control yesterday morning only for another to start in the early afternoon. Mr Cole said: “We realised what had happened about 8am, when we woke up and saw lots of smoke, as well as planes dropping water. We could smell the smoke, the sky had gone hazy, it wasn’t clear what was cloud and what was smoke.”
More than 20 emergency workers have been injured, suffering smoke inhalation and minor burns.
The fire service has mobilised staff from across France and specialist Canadian planes, which drop tonnes of water to douse flames, were brought in.
Meanwhile, Toulon Airport was briefly closed as fires broke out near the city.