A fire has already ravaged 600 hectares in the Var massif of Maures

The fire broke out on Tuesday afternoon in the town of Vidauban and has still not been determined. Several hundred firefighters were mobilized.

Areas still remain inaccessible on Wednesday June 12 in the morning to the 500 firefighters mobilized all night on the fire which broke out the day before in Vidauban in the Var. A fire which took the fire fighters by surprise because it rained on Sunday, recalls the president of the Var firefighters, also surprised by the scale of the disaster: 600 hectares have already gone up in smoke and the fire is still not fixed .

Firefighters fear that the wind will strengthen during the day and further fan the fire. The weather forecast indicates the return of gusts around midday. After having protected the homes and their occupants, they are now trying to contain the fire within the current limits, they indicate in a situation update Wednesday morning.

Coming from seven departments (Hérault, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Ardèche, Drôme, Vaucluse, Gard), 289 colleagues arrived as reinforcements on Wednesday morning to help the firefighters of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Alpes-Maritimes already on site. The water bomber planes left the operation at nightfall. Two Canadairs will be mobilized again from 7 a.m. on Wednesday. Their tanks can hold up to 6,000 liters of water. A Dash, an aircraft with a capacity of 10,000 liters, will also arrive in the morning.

No casualties were reported, but around a hundred people were evacuated preventively, including Lydia. “We saw the smoke getting denser. We saw the Canadairs arriving. It was getting bigger and bigger and it was starting to come towards us with violent winds at more than 70 km/h, she says. Then I really started to see that it was getting serious. My mother left with the firefighters and they came to tell us to evacuate. Only me remained on the farm”she tells the microphone of the franceinfo journalist.

This resident of La Garde-Freinet left her home with her family and her two dogs but the poultry breeder left 500 animals behind, her poultry, goats, sheep and a llama. She did not hide her concern: “Before leaving, I saw the flames at the doors of the house. The firefighters can no longer get through because the forest is too dense, too much brush and they are forced to wait at the side of the roads for the fire to arrive” . According to the president of Sdis du Var, it will take several days before the fire is finally extinguished. Departmental road 72 is still closed to traffic between Vidauban and Plan de la Tour. The D48 road is only accessible to local residents.