Four die in France forest fires
Four people have died in forest fires sweeping through southern France – the first deaths in a summer of devastating blazes.
Dozens of homes and several campsites have been destroyed and thousands of people are in emergency accommodation – some after fleeing the flames in their swimwear.
Some blazes were started deliberately, said local mayors and fire chiefs.
It’s the apocalypse. I think we’ve understood that these fires are a new form of terrorism
Local Mayor Luc Jousse
President Jacques Chirac vowed severe punishment for arsonists, as Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy travelled to the region to describe the fires as an “ecological massacre”.
Around 1,700 fire fighters, backed by hundreds of French troops and Italian reinforcements, are battling the flames.
France is suffering an unusually dry summer, allowing fires to spread quickly. Twelve new blazes were reported on Monday alone.
It was real scum who did this
Evacuated camper Patrick Pauget
The flames are now being fanned by the arrival of the autumn winds known as the “mistral”.
Two women found dead in woods outside the village of La Garde Freinet in the Maures hills, were believed to be a British teenager and her grandmother.
A third person died at Sainte-Maxime, and a man severely injured on Corsica died in hospital.
Thousands of people have been moved to safety from their homes and from campsites. The rush to escape the flames on Monday brought gridlock to some roads amid reported scenes of panic.
Some of the evacuees are being given emergency shelter at an airbase outside Frejus.
“This couldn’t have been an accident,” said one evacuated camper, Patrick Pauget. “It was real scum who did this.”
One of the worst fires was burning in the picturesque Maures Hills, where a separate blaze has already destroyed 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of forest.
Further east in Frejus, officials said the discovery of Molotov cocktails proved the fires there had been started deliberately.
“It’s the apocalypse,” said the mayor of nearby Roquebrune-sur-Argens, Luc Jousse. “I think we’ve understood that these fires are a new form of terrorism. They are all deliberate.”
“The flames arrived so quickly. We left on foot, without taking the car, without locking the house. We even left the dogs behind,” said one couple from Saint-Maxime.
France’s Defence Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, has announced more army reinforcements to help fight the fires in the south-east.
Mr Chirac, on a tour of French Polynesia, told reporters: “The guilty will be sought out with extreme rigour. Sanctions will be of an extraordinary severity.”
He called for vigilance and a spirit of responsibility during the dry period to prevent the fires’ spread.
Three major forest fires have swept through south-east France in the last fortnight.
The dry weather and soaring temperatures have created tinderbox conditions for the whole of Europe – with firefighters from Portugal to Russia’s far east battling hundreds of blazes.
BBC World
By: Geforce - 4th August 2003 at 15:58
Russia helps fight Europe blazes
SAINTE-MAXIME, France — Russia is to send two helicopters to help douse devastating forest and brush fires along France’s Mediterranean coast and is considering dispatching water-dropping planes, officials said.
Two more of the fast moving forest fires on the French Riviera were brought under control overnight, an official told CNN, but firefighters remained on high alert because of the rising Mistral wind.
A 15-year old and two other boys were being questioned, officials said, after suspicion many of the blazes were arson. A 30-year old municipal worker rejected as a fireman has admitted setting fires but not those this week.
Fueled by a heat wave and the worst drought in a quarter of a century, the fires continued to threaten a swathe of Europe Thursday including south-eastern France, Corsica, Portugal and north-eastern Italy.
In Portugal two people died from fire injuries Wednesday, one caught trapped in his car by the advancing flames, bringing the Europe-wide death toll to seven.
In France five people have died in the blazes including four foreign tourists.
A Russian emergencies ministry spokesman said that two giant Mi-26 helicopters were undergoing final technical checks and would probably be sent to France Friday.
The craft, the biggest transport helicopters in the world, can carry 15 tonnes of water each and drop them on a precise point, ITAR-TASS quoted experts as saying.
It was the first time France had ask for foreign reinforcements to battle fires. Italy, Greece and Norway followed Italy and Russia in offering firefighters and equipment Wednesday.
On Thursday stunned vacationers on the French Riviera sorted through their blackened belongings while firefighters battled to contain the last of nearly 30 fires.
The blazes, fueled by parched undergrowth, transformed the picturesque and touristic region between Toulon and Nice into an ashen moonscape dotted with tree stumps.
Firefighters tackle a blaze outside Sainte-Maxime, southern France.
Near Salon-de-Provence, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the port city of Marseille, nine firefighters were injured.
Up to 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of land have gone up in flames since the start of the Riviera infernos, making them the worst in a generation, fire officials said. Scores of homes have been damaged or destroyed, some 20,000 people temporarily evacuated.
A fire which since Tuesday destroyed 2,700 hectares of pinewood and brush around the town of La Motte in the hard-hit Var department was still burning but had been stabilized, officials said.
To the west in the Bouches-du-Rhone department a fire which broke out Wednesday near the town of Salon-de-Provence was brought under control during the night. The fire destroyed 500 hectares of woodland and seriously injured two firemen.
Temperatures remained high Thursday and, with forecasters predicting that the Mistral wind would pick up again during the day, emergency workers were on permanent stand-by.
Officials said that they were looking into arson as a possible cause of the blazes after soft drink bottles made into Molotov cocktails were found scattered in the region.
A 15-year-old was being questioned near Marseille Thursday after being seen acting suspiciously at the scene of a fire, and near Beziers in the Herault department to the west two boys were placed under judicial investigation after being spotted fleeing a fire on bicycles.
A 30-year-old municipal employee from the Var department, Stephane Jousse, was also placed under investigation Wednesday for arson after admitting starting several forest fires in July — though not the deadly outbreaks this week.
Arrested on Monday, Jousse was being held at the medical wing of a prison in Marseille as he underwent psychological tests. Police said he was aggrieved after failing to be taken on as a volunteer fireman.
Jousse faces 10 years in prison and a euro150,000-euro (US$170,000) fine if convicted.
The four who died in the fires in France included a 63-year-old British woman and her 15-year-old granddaughter, who were caught in the blazes which tore through the Maures mountain range near the village of Grimaud in the scenic Var region.
It is believed the pair were trying to escape the ferocious fires by car and became trapped in the La Garde-Freinet area. Their bodies were later found yards from their intact holiday home.
A Dutch woman and a Polish man were also killed in the French blazes.
Two people were killed in northern Portugal on Wednesday in a forest fire which has blazed out-of-control for more than three days in a rugged mountainous area, police and emergency services said.
The first victim, a man in his 60s, burned to death as he helped firefighters battle the fire which broke out Sunday afternoon in a mountainous region near Silvares, 260 kilometers (160 miles) north of Lisbon.
A second man was later found burned to death in his car near Povoa da Ribeirinha in the same area.
More than 500 firefighters and 600 soldiers were battling against steep terrain, strong easterly winds and temperatures which soar to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day.
The firefighters, who have come from all over the country, are equipped with 145 vehicles, four helicopters and six fire-fighting planes, including two on loan from neighboring Spain.
In Croatia, a number of blazes raged near popular tourist destinations in the south of the country, devouring hundreds of acres of pine forest and olive groves.
By: Shorty01 - 30th July 2003 at 00:55
Sadly a few years back they caught some kids doing it. Their excuse….
“We wanted to see the Canadairs (CL-215s)”.
I remember seeing the 215s myself when we went there on holiday tooooo long ago. We also got to see the odd Alize coming out of the airfield. A Noratlas dropping parachutists into the ogin was a common sight as well. That’s showing my age. Oh, yes, they had a Flamant on the gate as well.
By: US Agent - 29th July 2003 at 19:39
Yes, there are some bad ones in the US at the moment too…
By: Hand87_5 - 29th July 2003 at 19:29
Yep , those ar ethe worst since many decades.
What makes me sick is that most of them are criminal.
By: Geforce - 29th July 2003 at 19:24
What kind of sick mind wants to set up a fire and threaten the lifes of thousands of tourists? Hope they catch them ASAP. Brave firemen are trying to make an end to this new form of terrorism. Reinforcements from Spain, Italy and Belgium are on their way.
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July 29, 2003 at 7:23 pm