Le Monde | • Updated | By
very intense fires, fueled by extremely strong winds and favored by a large dry vegetation devastated, Wednesday 10 August, over 2000 hectares of scrubland and pine forests in the Bouches-du-Rhône, according to a still incomplete record.
Several homes were hatched during the afternoon of Wednesday in different areas around the Etang de Berre, Rognac, Vitrolles, Fos-sur-Mer, Istres, Les Pennes-Mirabeau and caused many people evacuation, believing prefecture to 600 the number of people temporarily housed in gymnasiums or multipurpose rooms. Many others have found accommodation in their family or friends
.
Two firefighters were “relatively minor injuries” and vehicle fire and emergency services department of Var was destroyed, according to the prefecture. A report on the number of homes destroyed is underway.
“This is a large-scale fire, which destroyed already more than 2 000 hectares. The mobilization is total relief , said the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve. The situation was made difficult because of the weather, with strong winds and a drought that lasted several weeks. “
From the middle of the afternoon, black smoke obscuring the sun had darkened the sky of Marseilles where there was a pungent smell; ash fluttered in the streets.
air resources
Thursday morning at 7:00, five Canadair – two devices that have traditionally been positioned in Corsica – were to resume their rotations, abutting to the 800 sailors and sappers firemen committed on a front in the heart of the night, threatening to cross the crest of a hill and reach the northern districts of Marseille where areas are located inhabited forest, but also large cities like La Castellane. Two aircraft Trackers, a Dash 8 and a helicopter Milan were also rehired.
During long hours, emergency clashed “a situation out of control, an extremely powerful light, fast, explosive continuing to burn everything in its path, even houses “, according to a fire department. They expected a lull in the dead of night with lower temperatures and favorable humidity, despite a still very turbulent wind.
In the middle of night, Yves Rousset, the delegate prefect confided that authorities had had to deal with “a very complicated situation with fires in various sectors” .
faced with fire swings of several hundred meters to even switch over the arrangements in place – the flames and crossed the A7 – the rescue “have primarily sought to protect sensitive points, according to Commander Guy Velu, senior officer of the marine battalion -pompiers Marseille. It is anticipated, we try to have a stroke ahead of the fire. Knowing he will be on that position for half an hour or an hour later, we are positioning our forces to protect inhabited areas. We can not afford to have the dead “.
preventive evacuations
Evacuations were ordered preventively so that people do found not stuck on flooded roads and smoke against the current for emergency vehicles.
Fos sur-Mer, fears were high because of the spread of flames on the field of oil installations, but the loss of the front has been contained thanks to the addition of forces county fire and rescue service (SDIS) and the means of struggle own businesses.
“We evacuated personnel located in the area bordered by the fire. Our facilities have been stopped or slowed (…). A crisis unit was immediately triggered “, has notified ArcelorMittal Fos.
Vitrolles is among the most affected by this first great fire of summer Commons. “The fire from everywhere, it’s uncontrollable” , observed a police officer regulating traffic. Neighborhoods were quickly emptied of their inhabitants.
“The firefighters have asked us to leave quickly. It was the Apocalypse. We just had time to take the dog and the car and nothing else. We arrived without anything, naked and raw, with a friend in the city center “, told the World a vitrollaise of Pinchinades district, an area of villas with pine forests .
“The fire caught us in a pincer movement”
” I have half my town is burning, deplored Wednesday night Amiel Michel, Mayor of Pennes-Mirabeau, a city 22 000 inhabitants of the adjoining north of Marseille neighborhoods. This is a disaster, I’ve never seen this, “, added the elect who did open three places to shelter residents. The town hall was thus transformed into a shelter where cots have been positioned into the lobby and gym mats stacked.
In early night, hundreds of people hoped to quickly return home, with the fear of finding the fire. “The police came looking for us to safety, it was blazing over the hill. the houses were closed, we were in the smoke “, showed two elderly friends and neighbors of the neighborhood said the village.
norddine Zergua, 62, himself has seen burning the house he was in the process of retyping in the West Infernet the neighborhood. “I left just in time, the trees fell. I have nothing more than the jeans I wear, my car, he showed the pictures to her cell phone, two lawnmowers “ spared by the flames.
in a calm but very tense atmosphere, the people present in the hall of the municipal council of Pennes-Mirabeau, banded together with neighbors. “I just took a bag with papers, the deed and certificate of insurance” , confided a resident who felt that “fire us squeezed “.
Between neighbors, they listed the pins present on their properties to assess the risks. Jennyfer, a student of 24 years, thought it, that it could lose: “I am a student and maybe my computer, my classes are burning. It’s still six years of my life. “
Significant reinforcements parties other departments. – About a thousand men – were quickly assist rescuers of Bouches-du-Rhône, including through conventional missions to free up staff for the fight against fire. Once the fire under control, it will take days to drown the last embers and prevent resumption of fire.
fire Scene in Vitrolles, where more than a thousand of people were evacuated Wednesday, August 10.
BORIS HORVAT / AFP
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Hérault: four firemen injured
Hérault, a violent fire, circumscribes little after 20 pm Wednesday destroyed about 200 hectares near the village of Gabian, 20 kilometers north of Béziers, according to the county fire and rescue service of Herault. Four firefighters in a vehicle surrounded by flames, were burned, three of them seriously. “We are very concerned” , said Lieutenant Colonel Yannick Rebillon, firefighters of the Herault. The four men were transported to hospitals in Montpellier.
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