A firefighting helicopter drops its load of water on a forest fire near Santa Comba Dao, northern Portugal, Thursday, Aug. 11 2016.
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Firefighters in Portugal are also battling multiple blazes fed by brush in a hot, dry summer for a sixth straight day. A full 186 wildfires were counted Wednesday on Portugal’s mainland.
Authorities said while Marseille was no longer in danger, they were taking no chances because strong winds could force the fires to spread again although they had remained relatively light on Thursday.
The Portuguese holiday island of Madeira was also counting the cost after fires killed three people.
Deputy Mayor Julian Ruas told I-Télé TV that the fire could reach the outskirts of Marseille in the next few hours.
People stand by emergency workers as a fire which has already devastated some 200 hectares approaches Vitrolles, southern France.
The Madeira fire forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents and tourists in the islands off northwestern Africa.
“That means that it is not expanding any more there are no visible flames”, said Vice-Admiral Charles-Henri Garrier, commander of Marseille’s firefighter battalion, speaking near Vitrolles, just 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Marseille.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 1,800 firefighters backed up by firefighting airplanes had been mobilized to tackle the blazes and around 400 police officers were helping to evacuate homes.
Authorities say 80 people are in hospital with burns, including two in a serious condition. Twenty to 25 homes were burned and at least 6,670 acres were destroyed.
“The fire is progressing”.
The firefighters were standing on top of the houses as they worked, he said.
Homes were destroyed in Vitrolles, a town 20 miles north of Marseille and at least three people are seriously injured.
“The fire is extremely powerful, fast, explosive, and continues burning everything in its path”, firefighters said in a statement from a temporary headquarters set up in Vitrolles.
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“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.
