Wildfires force thousands to evacuate in southern France; no fatalities reported
PARIS — Thousands of people were evacuated from homes and vacation sites in southeastern France on Wednesday as strong winds fueled wildfires that had been raging across the region for days.
At least 10,000 people, including 3,000 campers, were evacuated overnight — some to beaches nearby — after a forest fire started near Bormes-les-Mimosas, a town on the Mediterranean coast, where the population surges with vacationers during the summer.
At least two homes were gutted and a firefighter sustained an injury battling the blaze, but so far there have been no reports of fatalities, officials said. The prefecture of Var, the region that includes Bormes-les-Mimosas, said that nearly 2,000 acres of a forest near the town had burned and that more than 500 firefighters had been deployed.
Thousands of acres have burned over the past few days in the region, including across the French Riviera and on the island of Corsica, prompting evacuations, cutting off highways and sending huge plumes of smoke into the skies.
Sylvie Houspic, a Var official, told the BFMTV news channel that the fire on Tuesday evening near Bormes-les-Mimosas had started in a trailer park.
“It quickly spread due to the gusts of wind, which continue to blow,” Houspic said. She added that two houses had burned down and that a firefighter had sustained a broken wrist.
Robert Harris, a British writer vacationing in the area with his family, said in a phone interview: “We simply grabbed whatever we could.”
Harris, 60, said he fled his house in Cap Bénat at 2 a.m. with his wife and two children.
“It looked as though the whole of the Cap Bénat seemed to be on fire,” Harris said, adding that people had evacuated calmly to the nearest beaches.
Summer fires are a common occurrence in the region and elsewhere in southern Europe, where blazes spread rapidly through forests and scrubland left parched by droughts.
Var was hit hardest Tuesday and Wednesday, but firefighters have been battling dozens of fires elsewhere in southeastern France.
In blazes near the towns of La Croix-Valmer and Artigues, at least 10 firefighters were injured Tuesday, but those fires were under control, the Var prefecture said on Wednesday.
France has requested two water bombers from its European neighbors to help battle the fires, and Collomb announced Tuesday in Corsica that six Canadair water bombers would be added to the country’s air fleet.