Marseille: 390 hectares burned in the creeks of the Park, privileged criminal track – Le Parisien

L es firefighters arrived Tuesday at noon almost to the end of the fire probably arson that destroyed since yesterday 390 hectares of vegetation in Cassis, near Marseille, announced the prefect AFP.
fire has no victims and spared the homes.
“We brought in this morning aircraft bombers water “and” we end up working with the civil Security helicopters that deposit commandos to work fine in the fire surgery “, reported the regional prefect Stephane Bouillon.
An investigation must establish the origin this fire, but first testimonies “have reported the presence of young people on a scooter, on a behind a city” near where the fire started, he added. “They left and the fire started just after.”
Unlike yesterday where a powerful Mistral wind fanned the flames, the wind is weak, with gusts of only 13 km / h, which makes it easier for firefighters.
emergency believe they avoided the worst of nature by achieving, through the means deployed (860 naval firemen, 250 vehicles, several aircraft and helicopter water bombers), to the fire within a corridor a little over a kilometer wide.
the flames spared Cassis and are not descended to the sea, in the coves themselves, where the damage to the environment could have been much more important, said the prefect.
where the fire happened, the flames were however left a desolate landscape, completely blackened, according to an AFP photographer. “It’s a real sadness, anger and a real” commented Didier Réault, president of the National Park creeks.
Road to Col de la Gineste, crossing the Calanques between Marseille and Cassis, remain closed at least Tuesday.
Monday, the Rhone delta department had been placed in a situation of “unusual danger”, the first in several years. The temperature exceeded 30 ° C every day since late August, unusually high temperatures for the period.
The low rainfall in winter and spring, combined with durable heat of summer throughout the southeast of France, favored the fire starts this year.
on August 10, a fire north of Marseille ravaged more than 3,000 hectares and affected 1,500 homes, of which 30 were destroyed. He stopped at the gates of Marseille.
The last major fire at the gates of Marseille of July 2009 and had traveled a thousand hectares, south of the city. It was caused by driving shots with tracer bullets – equipped with a device pyrotechnique- in Carpiagne military camp over creeks. The fire spread in the hills above Marseille and had been confined at the end of three days, leaving two injured.