Riviera fires: Arson suspected

2003-07-29 15:39

Philippe Fortin

Sainte-Maxime, France - Forest fires swept through the French Riviera on Tuesday, killing at least four people, devastating scenic woods and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

Firefighters speculated that the fires - some 30 that broke out nearly simultaneously on Monday - were caused by arson. Molotov cocktails were found in the region, according to radio and television reports.

The mayor of Roquebrune-Sur-Argens, Luc Jousse, called the fires "a new form of terrorism".

The blazes were described as the worst ever in the Var region, an area thick with Mediterranean pine trees and picturesque bays that is a magnet for tourists. Clouds of yellow and gray smoke blew across the skyline of the area cherished by painters past and present, about halfway between Toulon and Nice.

Four dead

Three women - two British and one Dutch - were killed by the blazes, according to Colonel Jacques Baudot, the Var fire chief. A Polish man also died, he said.

The British women had apparently been trying to escape by car when they were caught by the flames around La Garde-Freinet, he said. The Polish victim died in the same area. The Dutch woman died while being transferred to a hospital by helicopter from Sainte-Maxime.

The victims' identities were not immediately made public.

About 60 homes were destroyed or damaged in the blazes that had ripped through some 8 500ha by Tuesday morning.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, visiting the ravaged area, said a Russian helicopter that can carry 12 tons of fire retardant was being called in. Some 60 Italian firefighters and 27 Italian vehicles also were being sent to the French Riviera, or Cote d'Azur, according to the Civil Defence Department in Rome. They were backing up approximately 1 500 French firefighters.

Imprudence

The French Defence Ministry sent in some 100 extra soldiers, bringing the number of army troops to 400.

Fires raged through some of the most prized vacation areas in the Var region, concentrated in the areas around Frejus, 40km from Cannes and Sainte-Maxime, to the west.

Sarkozy called the desecration "an ecological massacre".

He said that "imprudence" was as harmful to the environment, rendered fragile by a heat wave, as "deranged" people who deliberately set fires.

"We will be without pity for all those who are imprudent or criminal," the minister said.

At least seven campsites packed with vacationers were evacuated near Sainte-Maxime and 11 others near Frejus. Homes also were evacuated in scattered areas.

Electricity was briefly cut overnight in the Gulf of St Tropez region - a playground for the rich and famous - and numerous roads were closed to traffic.

Apocalypse

"It's the apocalypse," Jousse, the mayor of Roquebrune-Sur-Argens, said on LCI television.

"I think we've understood that these fires are a new form of terrorism," Jousse said. "They are all deliberate."

Both Jousse and Frejus Mayor Elie Brun said they would pursue legal action against those responsible.

President Jacques Chirac, in Papeete, Tahiti, promised that "the guilty will be sought out with extreme rigour" and "sanctions will be of an extraordinary severity".

Baudot, the Var fire chief, said arson was not confirmed. However, he noted that 28 fires were started on Monday, and "there is little probability that this is by chance".

A fire in the same area just over a week ago burned some 10 000ha of the Massif des Maures.

The latest fire, pushed by the "Mistral", the wind that blows over the Mediterranean coast of France, quickly raged through a similar area on Tuesday.

- AP