Fire Sweeps Through French Holiday Area

More than 8,000 tourists and residents were forced to leave camp sites and homes in the holiday region around Fréjus when fire swept through 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of heath and forest beside the Mediterranean.

Yesterday morning, 1,100 people, mostly campers, were told to leave an area around the Verdon river in the Provençal Alps when another fire broke out in heathland.

Many British tourists were caught up in the emergency evacuation of holiday areas around Fréjus according to firefighters at Vidauban, where the fire began on Thursday.

It stopped only when it reached the sea 15 miles away. The fire could be seen clearly from the A8 motorway to the Riviera.

"This was the worst fire in the Var department since 1990," the fire chief, Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Pierre Souza, said.

Many people were given refuge overnight in village halls and gymnasiums. There were no casualties.

Fanned by 45mph winds, the fire progressed at a rate of about a mile an hour south of Draguignan through the Massif des Maures.

Forty cars and nine houses were destroyed but firefighters stopped the blaze spreading to villages.

The fire had still not been brought fully under control by noon yesterday when 13 aircraft, including five helicopters, dumped water to help the 1,300 firefighters concentrated around the popular resorts of Issambres and Saint-Aygulf.

Reinforcements were rushed in from Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities after warnings that the wind direction could suddenly change.

Col Souza said there were fears of an exceptional summer for brush fires because of a drought which could turn out to be worse than that in 1976. Camp sites may be closed.