Two wildfires in southern France led to the evacuation of several thousand people before the fires were contained, officials reported on Monday.
Approximately 3,000 holidaymakers were relocated from a campsite to a municipal building in the coastal town of Canet-en-Roussillon, close to the city of Perpignan, due to a fire exacerbated by strong winds, according to a statement from rescue services. The fire, which resulted in the destruction of one mobile home and partial damage to five others, was subsequently brought under control.
Further along the Mediterranean coast, a fire in the coastal town of Frontignan, near Montpellier, also forced residents to evacuate but was later suppressed. "The fire has been under control for two and a half hours now," stated Jerome Bonnafoux, a spokesman for the regional firefighters, to AFP shortly after sunrise. "We're still working on it because there are several hot spots where the risk of it flaring is high," he continued. Out of the 600 firefighters who responded to the fire on Sunday, half were anticipated to remain on site throughout the day.
The fire, which consumed at least 300 hectares of land, originated near the A9 highway from Montpellier to the Spanish border. Firefighters utilized the water from private homeowners' swimming pools to combat the blaze, as reported by the mayor's cabinet director.
