Assistant Prefect Yves Rousset, asked at a pre-dawn meeting with reporters in Marseille, whether the fire might reach France’s second-largest city overnight, said, “We can never say there will be no risk, but we’re doing everything so it doesn’t”.
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In southern France more than 1,000 people were evacuated from several towns, notably Vitrolles, about 25 kilometres north of Marseille where some homes were burned down, and in nearby Pennes-Mirabeau.
French officials said homes had been destroyed in the towns of Vitrolles, about 25km (15 miles) north of Marseille, and nearby Pennes-Mirabeau.
Flight delays continued Thursday evening at Marseille’s airport which had rerouted incoming flights on Wednesday to cope with firefighting aircraft.
A couple looks at the burnt ruins of the Choupana Hills hotel in the outskirts of Funchal, the capital of Portugal’s Madeira island, Wednesday, Aug. 10 2016.
Today, authorities said that the wildfires are for the moment under control, but if the wind picks up it the fire may begin to spread again. “It’s progressing fast”, he said on BFM-TV. Three people died in their homes yesterday morning, while another two people were seriously hurt and one person went missing.
Some 1,200 firefighters were still working to dampen down smouldering areas of brush and trees, fire service Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Faure said, adding that he believed the danger was subsiding.
A 50-year old man taking pictures of the fires in Vitrolles, 20 km northwest of Marseille, was being questioned by police, a source close to the investigation told Reuters, but the interior minister said it was too early to say if criminal intent was behind the fires.
Hollande, speaking in his home region of Correze in central France, said “those responsible will be found and punished”.
Around 1,000 people were initially evacuated, including many foreign tourists, and 400 people spent a second night Wednesday at an army barracks.
A hotel overlooking Funchal was destroyed and more than 150 homes were left uninhabitable, officials said.
Fanned by gusty winds over 30 kilometers per hour, the fires are expected to continue to pose a threat, with CNN weather forecasters predicting hotter than average temperatures to continue across the region and little to no chance of rain.
A first-division football match between Madeira club CD Nacional and Chaves, scheduled for the start of the Portuguese season on Sunday, was postponed because of damage to the stadium in Funchal, the club said.
A firefighting helicopter flies above a forest fire near Mortagua, northern Portugal.
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Portugal’s European Union partners have answered a call to assist and an Italian air tanker will join two Spanish water bombers already deployed, while Morocco has also offered to contribute two additional planes.
