Wildfires have erupted in Marseille, France, resulting in over 110 injuries, according to the nation’s interior minister. Bruno Retailleau, commenting during a visit to the affected zone on Tuesday, described the injuries as minor and noted that the fire, though not yet fully contained, has not claimed any lives.
Fires sparked on a key highway close to Les Pennes-Mirabeau, north of Marseille, had scorched approximately 720 hectares and damaged around 20 structures as of 6 PM (UK time). Despite the fires being partially under control, they continued to burn into the night, with predictions of ongoing hot and windy conditions throughout the week.
A wildfire in Les Pennes-Mirabeau. Picture: Pompiers13/Reuters
Smoke blankets the hills near Marseille. Picture: Pompiers13/AP
Marseille’s mayor, Benoit Payan, described the efforts to combat the blaze as a “battle”, likening the situation to “guerrilla warfare”. He remarked, “What occurs tonight is critical. Everything is strategic: wind speed, humidity, and nightfall – all factors are significant. It’s extremely complex, and the work is incredibly difficult.” More than 1,000 firefighters were dispatched to tackle the fire, and hundreds of homes were evacuated.
A helicopter with water hovers above smoke from the wildfire in Marseille. Picture: Reuters
The fire also led to Marseille Provence Airport, France’s fourth busiest, suspending flights and the city’s Hospital Nord switching to generators due to temporary power outages. According to AtmoSud, the regional air quality observatory, the concentration of certain air pollutants was 10 times higher than the permissible daily limit due to the blaze.
As the frequency and destructiveness of wildfires in the Mediterranean and southern Europe have increased in recent years, wildfires were also rampant in northeastern Spain.
Read more from Sky News:
Flights suspended after man is sucked into plane engine
What is a ‘heat dome’?
More than 160 still missing after Texas floods
Last week, wildfires erupted in southern Crete, prompting the evacuation of over 1,500 people amid an early summer heatwave in Europe. Over the weekend, further blazes were reported near Athens in Greece, along the west coast of Turkey, and in northeastern Syria.
Source: https://news.sky.com/story/more-than-110-injured-after-marseille-wildfire-minister-says-13394354
