France wildfires force thousands to flee

MARSEILLE: Two wildfires in southern France forced several thousand people to flee before the blazes were brought under control, officials said on Monday.

Some 3,000 holiday makers were evacuated from a camping site to a municipal building in the coastal town of Canet-en-Roussillon, near the city of Perpignan, in the face of a fire fanned by strong winds, rescue services said in a statement.

The fire, which destroyed one mobile home and partially damaged five others, was brought under control, they said. Further up the Mediterranean coast, a fire that forced dozens from their homes in the coastal town of Frontignan, near the city of Montpellier, was also quelled.

“The fire has been under control for two and a half hours now,” a spokesman for the regional firefighters, Jerome Bonnafoux, told AFP shortly after sunrise. “We´re still working on it because there are several hot spots where the risk of it flaring are high,” he added.

Of the 600 firefighters who rushed to put out the fire on Sunday, half were expected to keep working on the site throughout the day, he added. The fire, which has destroyed at least 300 hectares of land, ignited near the A9 highway from Montpellier to the Spanish border. Firefighters emptied the swimming pools of private homeowners to tackle the blaze, the mayor´s cabinet director said.