More than 300 firefighters have been mobilized since Saturday to try to put out the fire, triggered by artillery fire in an area “pollutedthat is, where there are unexploded shells and explosives.
The fire at the Canjuers military training camp (Var) destroyed 1,000 hectares of vegetation in three days, but remains contained within the limits of the camp, the Var firefighters told AFP on Monday June 20.
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Monday evening, more than 320 civilian and military firefighters were still on site, to deal with the fire that was raging in this “plant desertof grass and brush, in the words of captain Olivier Pécot of Sdis du Var. The emergency services mobilized significant air resources, two Dash and four Canadair, to drop retardant barriers on the ridges, until nightfall, “so that the fire remains within the limits of the military camp“, according to Olivier Pécot.
“polluted” area
The fire started on Saturday around 9 a.m. in an areapollutedthat is, where there are shells and unexploded explosives, which delayed the intervention of firefighters for security reasons. It was indeed necessary to wait for the flames to come out of this firing perimeter to be able to intervene. On Monday, the Marseille prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP the opening of an investigation “of the count of involuntary destruction by fire“, followed by the military prosecutor’s office.
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Much of the fire remains very difficult to access and firefighters are being dropped off by helicopter. “But in the afternoon, with the sun and the wind reactivating, the fire resumes in places where there are no firefighters on the ground.“, explained Olivier Pécot. Isolated, the military complex of Canjuers is located tens of kilometers from homes, which means that there is, according to him, “no stake in terms of human activities“. As a precaution, however, the gendarmes block the road near the camp, a tourist route that leads to the Gorges du Verdon.
A similar fire in 2009
A heat wave has been affecting southern Europe for several days. If several French departments are in red vigilance, the Var is not affected by this state of vigilance. However, several areas of the department are suffering from drought. A similar event had already occurred in July 2009 in the south of France. At the gates of Marseille, a huge fire caused by training shots with tracer bullets – fitted with a pyrotechnic device – broke out in the military camp of Carpiagne, above the creeks.
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The fire, which had covered some 1300 hectares, had spread in the hills overlooking the second city of France, and had only been circumscribed after three days, causing two injuries. The authorities had denouncedthe imbecility of the gesture” soldiers. A legionnaire who ordered the shootings was given a six-month suspended prison sentence in 2015.
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