Holidaymakers flee as fires rage in southern France

Over 10,000 people, including thousands of holidaymakers, were evacuated from campsites and homes in southern France as firefighters on Wednesday battled the latest in a string of huge blazes along the Mediterranean coast.

The new fire broke out Tuesday night after France asked for Europe's help to tackle the flames already raging in several spots on the tinder-dry south, including near the popular Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez.

Firefighters are also battling fires on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica and in Portugal.

About 3,000 of those evacuated from the picturesque coastal village of Bormes-les-Mimosas were tourists staying in campgrounds, some of whom ended up spending the night in sleeping bags on the beach. 

Village mayor Francois Arizzi said between 10,000 and 12,000 people had been moved to public shelters but that some had preferred to sleep in their cars.

Lisa Minor, travel editor of British tabloid The Sun, who was in the area on a family holiday, tweeted pictures of orange smoke billowing from a ridge behind her campsite and of bleary-eyed families packed into a beachfront creche. 

"Sirens still going off. Some info would be nice. Winds still high," she wrote.

- 'Work of arsonists' -

The head of the rescue operation, Serge La Vialle, told AFP that more than 550 firefighters backed by five water bomber aircraft had not yet managed to contain the blaze. 

"It's moving slowly and even growing a bit," he said.

France's Cote d'Azur bulges in July and August as holidaymakers head to the beach.

Bormes-les-Mimosas "doubles or triples its population in summer", a local fire official said. 

The area is experiencing a particularly hot and dry summer that has made it especially vulnerable to fires.

Arizzi told French radio he believed Tuesday night's blaze, which started in a caravan storage depot, was the work of arsonists. Other fires have been blamed on discarded cigarettes.

Over 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water bombers have been mobilised to fight the fires that first began Monday, fanned by strong winds.

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation, according to the authorities.

The blazes have devoured around 5,000 hectares (15 square miles) of land along the coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.

France on Tuesday asked its EU partners to lend it two extra fire-fighting planes, the first of which arrived quickly from Italy.

A trade unionist denounced what he said was a lack of spare parts preventing all of France's own aircraft required from being put into action.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced on Tuesday that France would be adding six more firefighting planes to its fleet.

- Charred coastline -

On Tuesday, a fire consumed 400 hectares of coastal forest in La Croix-Valmer near Saint-Tropez, a resort frequented by the rich and famous. 

More than 200 people had to be moved from the area.

La Croix-Valmer's deputy mayor Rene Carandante described a landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines, where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

"It's a disaster area. There's nothing left," he said.

Francois Fouchier, of the local coastal conservation group, told AFP that wildlife, such as the Hermann's tortoise, would be victims of the fires. "We are going to find burnt shells.

kilometres (50 miles) inland, 300 hectares of pines and oaks went up in smoke near the village of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume. 

A local official accused the authorities of failing to regularly remove dry undergrowth, making the forest a fire hazard.

A chunk of forest near a town in northeast Corsica, an island situated in the Mediterranean midway between France and Italy, also went up in smoke Monday.

- Riviera becoming 'bushier' -

 

Portugal, meanwhile, which last month suffered deadly forest fires, has been battling fresh blazes since Sunday in centre of the country, forcing the evacuation of around 10 villages.

About 1,100 firefighters have been drafted to stop the advance of the flames in the same area that was engulfed by fire last month, leaving 64 people dead.

Thomas Curt, a director at the Irsea institute for research into the environment and agriculture, said a drop-off in farming in southeast France since the 1970s had made it more prone to fires.

"Farmland is contracting and the forest is naturally expanding, making the area bushier," he said.

A proliferation in the numbers of homes, roads and power lines near forests also increased the fire hazard, he added.

In mid-July, a blaze believed to have been ignited by a cigarette butt tossed out of a car ripped through 800 hectares of land near Aix-en-Provence.