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Fire in Canet-en-Roussillon: 3,000 holidaymakers urgently evacuated
Fire in Canet-en-Roussillon: 3,000 holidaymakers urgently evacuated
(France 2)
The 3,000 holidaymakers at a campsite had to be evacuated in the Pyrénées-Orientales, near Canet-en-Roussillon, on Sunday 18 August. The fire, which broke out around 2am, was brought under control by firefighters.
A wall of flames at the gates of a campsite in Canet-en-Roussillon (Pyrénées-Orientales). A fire fanned by violent winds broke out on the evening of Sunday 18 August. It surprised 3,000 holidaymakers in the middle of the night. All were forced to evacuate in a hurry. “We were woken up at 3am by the alarm.”says a vacationer.
Significant resources were mobilized for two hours: 105 firefighters and 27 vehicles. The system ultimately slowed the spread of the fire. “We had the good Lord on our side, because there was much less damage than we could have imagined with such a fire.”comments Pierre Merico, deputy mayor of Canet-en-Roussillon. In the morning, the vegetation in the campsite, usually lush, is nothing more than ashes, which lie alongside carcasses of cars for dozens of metres. More than 2,500 of the 3,000 campers were able to return to the campsite.
