On Tuesday, hundreds of French firefighters struggled to control a raging wildfire near the Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez. Thousands of residents and holidaymakers were forced to evacuate.
On Monday night, about 900 firefighters used high-pressure hoses, airplanes and helicopters to try to control the fire, and the fire began to spread rapidly among the bushes and trees in the Plain de Mores Nature Reserve.
The big fire has been This year rages in parts of Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Algeria and Morocco.
The Mediterranean Basin has long faced seasonal wildfires associated with dry and hot summers, but climate scientists warn that they will become more common due to man-made global warming.
“Fires continue to start in many different places. We are still a long way from declaring victory,” Olivier Peckett, fire chief of the Var region in France, told AFP.
He added: “The wind has strengthened, the direction has changed slightly, and the fire has begun to spread to unaffected areas.”
Of the thousands transferred to the safety of municipal buildings and schools, 1,300 live in a campsite in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas near the coast of Saint-Tropez.
“As a precautionary measure, thousands of people have been evacuated, but there are no victims,” fire department spokesman Delphine Veenke told AFP on Tuesday morning, adding that the fire was “still very violent.”
“The fire is very big, it’s a very difficult battle,” Vinke said, citing “bad conditions with strong winds and high temperatures.”
Many tourists can still be seen enjoying the sunshine on the nearby Côte d’Azur beaches, however, Air Canada’s firefighting planes regularly swoop in from the sea and fill up fuel tanks from the sea before returning to the nearby smoking hills.
Others loaded their cars to the safe area, and the leading officials begged people in the safe area to stay at home to avoid blocking the roads used by emergency services.
“We started to smell smoke around 7pm [5pm GMT], And then we saw the flames on the mountain,” said Cindy Tinnis, who fled the mole camp near Carvalaire on Monday night. “We hesitated, but when we saw this, we decided to leave.” She told AFP.
President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Bridget are on vacation in nearby Fort Bregançon. He announced that he would visit the scene later on Tuesday.
About 600 firefighters Portugal On Tuesday, a new fire broke out in Castro Marim in the Algarve region, a tourist hotspot in the southernmost part of the country close to the Spanish border.
Local officials said that about 9,000 hectares (22,200 acres) of land were burned, and a firefighter was briefly taken to the hospital for treatment due to burns.
Central fire broke out alone Spain Local authorities stated that the forest near Navarre Cruz is being controlled, but about 12,000 hectares (29,700 acres) of forest have been destroyed by the fire.
It is believed that the French fire started near a highway that passed through the Plaine des Maures reserve 18 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of Saint-Tropez.
According to the fire department, as of Tuesday, the wind-blown fire had engulfed 3,500 hectares (8,600 acres) of forest and bushes.
Thomas Dombry, the mayor of La Garde-Freinet village, told AFP: “We have never seen it spread so fast, three or four times as fast as usual.”
Although the fire was still raging on Tuesday, the authorities are still calculating the damage to the environment.
“Half of the Plaine des Maures Nature Reserve has been destroyed. This is a disaster,” said Concha Agero, deputy director of the French Biodiversity Office, adding that the reserve was “Hermann Land”. One of the last refuges for the tortoise”.
On Tuesday, the burnt wires lay on the ground. The trunks of many trees were burned, but their branches were intact, indicating that the fire had spread rapidly.
The fire approached La Garde-Freinet at night, but was not spared from the settlement, which suffered a catastrophic fire in 2003 that killed three firefighters.
