The evacuations Wednesday represent nearly 15 percent of the population of Vitrolles, about 15 miles north of Marseille.
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Vitrolles-France mobilized 1,500 firefighters Wednesday to tackle wildfires in countryside north of Marseille that have gutted buildings and forced more than 1,000 people to flee their homes. The farm was caught in the forest fires that are raging in Madeira and have forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents and tourists.
High winds and tinderbox conditions fuelled fears of new fires in southern France today as blazes which killed three people on the Portuguese holiday island of Madeira were brought under control.
The origins of the French fires, which started in Rognac, north of Vitrolles, remain unknown.
“At this time only one active fire remains, in the town of Calheta” in the west of the island, while blazes have been contained in Funchal and the neighbouring town of Camara de Lobos, a civil protection official said Thursday.
Fires were burning in Portugal and Spain.
Emergency services have been stretched by the fires raging amid fierce summer heat, with firefighters from the capital Lisbon having earlier been drafted in to fight deadly fires on the island of Madeira, some 800 kilometers (about 500 miles) southwest of the Portuguese mainland.
Several wild fires broke out in various parts of southern France on Wednesday, causing a major firefighting operation in which four firemen were injured, three of them seriously, the interior ministry said in a statement. More than 3,000 hectares of vegetation were destroyed in the Marseille area, the Herault and the Pyrenees-Orientales regions. More than 1,000 had spent the night in gymnasiums.
“Anyway, if you go and walk in the ash behind me, you may walk on embers. And those embers, with the wind going stronger. may spark the fire again, cross the crest and put the fire in the pinewood behind you”.
The Marseille airport rerouted incoming flights to make way for firefighting aircraft, while officials in Marseille, France’s second-largest city, were bracing for flames that risked lapping at its doors, and the airport warned flights risk delays or cancellations Thursday. Desperate, the government requested help from other European Union countries.
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In Portugal, firefighters also battled multiple fires for a sixth straight day.
