Summer wildfires are once again blazing across southern Europe, forcing the evacuation of 12,000 people on France’s Mediterranean cost and devouring swaths of forests as far afield as Corsica, Portugal, Italy and Albania, reports The Guardian.
Authorities in the Côte d’Azur region decided to move people out of tents, campsites and holiday homes around the hilltop town of Bormes-les-Mimosas after a fire broke out in the surrounding forests on Tuesday.
Some of the 12,000 people displaced by the flames sheltered in gymnasiums, village halls and schools while others huddled on local beaches.
Karine Dolczewski, a mother of four from Pas-de-Calais who was on holiday with her family in the area, said they had been ordered to leave their holiday centre at about 10.30pm on Tuesday.
“The sky was all red,” she told Le Monde. “It was a huge blaze with enormous flames spreading everywhere.”
After hearing gas canisters exploding at a nearby campsite, guests at the centre in La Manne were told they needed to evacuate.
“We left everything there except for the baby’s bottle and nappies,” Dolczewski added. After marching calmly in single file down to the beach, they were taken to the village hall in Bormes-les-Mimosas.
Local journalists photographed several people curled up in sleeping bags on the sand while smoke from the fire could be seen in the distance.
On Tuesday, more than 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water-bombers had already been mobilised to extinguish the flames.