Wildfire terror on the Riviera
‘All we had time to bring was our passports’ say tourists forced to spend a second night on the beach
People flee the beach with their belongings as a wildfire rages behind them in Bormes-les-mimosas, southeastern France. Some 4,000 hectares of land has been burnt along the coast and at least 10,000 people were evacuated overnight. Dozens of British holidaymakers were preparing for another night sleeping on the beach as the blazes forced them out of a campsite on the French Riviera.
DOZENS of British holidaymakers prepared for another night sleeping on the beach last night as wildfires forced them to flee a campsite on the French Riviera.
Anne Davies, 74, from Exeter, was with a group of family and friends who were woken in the early hours yesterday and told to leave the Camping du Domaine site in Bormes-les-mimosas, south-eastern France.
“We left all our things. All we had time to bring was our passports,” Mrs Davies told The Daily Telegraph from the beach where they sought refuge, fringed by palm trees and pines.
Smoke rose from thickly wooded hills behind the seafront and there was an acrid smell of burning vegetation. Firefighting planes roared overhead, spraying water in an effort to contain the fires.
Roads into the resort were closed to traffic and firemen directed drivers to turn back. “It’s too dangerous. We’ve got the strong Mistral wind here and the fire can spread or change direction very quickly,” said an emergency official who declined to be named.
Mrs Davies was not looking forward to bedding down on the beach again.
“It was cold when we got here last night, at two in the morning. We spent seven-and-a-half hours here without blankets or sleeping bags. Tonight we’ve got sleeping bags, and we’ve bought bread and cheese for supper. It’s not too comfortable but we’re not miserable. It’s the Dunkirk spirit.”
Sue Batty, 67, her friend, said the group returned to the campsite during the day and slept for an hour or two in their caravan. “Then we were evacuated again, but this time we brought our essentials with us. We’re not sure if we’ll be allowed to sleep on the beach as we’ve been told by campsite staff that it’s polluted, but it looks very clean.”
Some British campers accepted an offer of alternative accommodation elsewhere on the Riviera and left by bus, but many decided to remain in Bormes-les-mimosas. “We didn’t want to get into a bus and be taken to an unknown destination,” Mrs Batty said. “We’ve been coming here for 35 years and we’ve seen fires before in the area, but never anything like this. We saw the fire heading in our direction before we came to the beach last night.
“That was the scariest thing. We could see the flames from the campsite so we didn’t hang around when they said it was an emergency.”
Her son, Michael Batty, 44, a caterer, said: “We’ll just have to make the best of it tonight.”
Palls of black and grey smoke rising from the brush-covered hills around Bormes-les-mimosas were visible from 15 miles away. Flames could be seen on some hillsides from the resort.
The wildfires have raged across south-eastern France and forced more than 12,000 people to leave their homes and campsites overnight.
Firefighters continued to battle the flames last night in Bormes-les-mimosas and La Londe-les-maures as well as on the island of Corsica.
Wildfires have also affected Portugal this week, where 2,300 firefighters with more than 700 vehicles have been tackling 13 fires. The flames were driven by powerful winds across steep hillsides of dense pine and eucalyptus forest.
‘We’ve been coming here for 35 years and we’ve seen fires before in the area, but never anything like this’
Around 3,000 campers were among those escorted to safety. Dame Joan Collins, the actress, abandoned her house near Saint Tropez. She said in a tweet that the fire in her area had started from a barbecue. Robert Harris, the author of Enigma and Fatherland, joked on social media that the fire “added a certain drama” to his holiday after he was evacuated from Bormesles-mimosas.
Ollie Marriage, 44, from Berkshire, told The Daily Telegraph the fire was “like an explosion with masses of black smoke … like thousands of matches on fire, except the matches were trees”.
He added: “Within just two minutes the fire got completely out of control and was spreading fast and rising up the hillside.” Mr Marriage was evacuated from his villa in Gigaro along with his wife and two children.
Diana and John Wardill, both 70, from Yorkshire, were also caught up in the incident. Fire approached their home in St Tropez so rapidly that they got in their car and fled. “It was shocking. It happened so quickly,” Mrs Wardill told the Yorkshire Post.
“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.” Additional reporting by Natasha Dangoor