More than 1,800 firefighters have been mobilized against this fire, which was reported Tuesday in the late afternoon on the commune of Martigues. 2700 people were evacuated.
At least 2700 people, including many French and foreign tourists, have been evacuated in the night to escape a violent fire on the Côte bleue, west of Marseille, which has ravaged more than 1,000 acres and was not yet quite mastered this Wednesday morning, according to firefighters.
“The fire is under control”, has indicated to the mid-day, a person in charge of firefighters of Bouches-du-Rhône. The flames, the most important are off . “No serious injuries reported, but damage still to be assessed,” they added. Some 1,800 soldiers of the fire are still fighting this fire, which was reported Tuesday in the late afternoon in the town of Martigues, to the west of Marseille.
on Wednesday, mid-day, residents and holidaymakers have been able to begin to return to some areas, said the mayor of Martigues. But other housed in two campsites that were burned were still in temporary accommodation. The fire fighters continue their operations on the premises to avoid any recovery, and remain “vigilant” because of a south wind announced and rising temperatures.
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No victim
“A great point of relief is that there was no victim. However, there could have been many victims : two holiday villages have been destroyed and then all the way along the path of the fire, there were houses that have been affected,” said Gaby Charroux, the mayor of Martigues, the city most hit by the disaster.
due to the strong wind, the fire progressed rapidly and threatened several communities in the coast of the Mediterranean, “the flames getting into the neighbourhoods, peri-urban, between homes and campsites”, reported the fire. “Eight campsites in Martigues and Sausset-les-Pins have been evacuated preventively” and many of their vacationers evacuated by sea before being taken in charge by the municipal authorities of Martigues and Sausset, especially in gyms, indicated the fire department.
Gérald Darmanin on-the-spot
Arrived on site around midnight on Wednesday, the minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin commended on BFMTV the work of the fire department and complained about the “drama to the biodiversity of the massifs in the Bouches-du-Rhône”. Aircraft water bombers have succeeded in order to attempt to extinguish the flames and slow down their progression. The fire has travelled eight kilometres in two hours, said the departmental Service of fire and rescue (Sdis) of the Bouches-du-Rhone on Twitter.
“The police have rescued hundreds of people who were in a perilous situation, on the very beach of the Tamarisk, with children at a young age while the flames were threatening,” said Arnaud Louis, the DDSP 13. A facility for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) also had to be evacuated. A second fire was reported in the same area but closer to industrial areas devastated 130 acres, destroying or damaging a house and several businesses, said the firefighters Wednesday.
At the height of the response, the fire department has been strengthened by air very important : seven Aircraft, two Dash, helicopters, water bombers and planes Pelican of the civil security. The fire does not pose a threat to the industrial installations of the zone of Fos-sur-mer, had, however, assured Pierre Dartout, in the early evening.
visitor Centres
“We were in Martigues for shopping but now we can no longer go home with The Crown. We tried to pass by the coast, but all the roads are cut, it burns everywhere it is awful. It is very worried because my father, who is elderly, has remained to The Crown, and it is hard not to know what’s happening,” testified one woman.
READ ALSO >> With the drought and the high temperatures, the risk of fire is “maximum”
In the evening, the mayor of Martigues, who proceeded to the evacuation of a neighborhood, has announced the opening of three centres to accommodate the outputs of the areas threatened by the flames. To Sausset-les-Pins, adjacent commune of Martigues, hundreds of people, tourists and locals, were greeted in a gymnasium with cots and food.
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drought in France and the water restrictions
Desertification, erosion…The catastrophic consequences of forest fires to repeat “there is nothing, it is empty”: the farmers impacted by the water restrictions With the drought and the high temperatures, the risk of fire is “maximum”
After 18 hours Tuesday, a portion of the A55 motorway between Marseille and Martigues has been closed. Since the weekend, access to all the massifs of the Bouches-du-Rhône has been banned because of strong winds and temperatures that increase the risk of fire. Between 2015 and 2019, 9300 ha of forest have burned annually on average in the departments of the mediterranean coast.
