South of France: Fire razed the Argelès campsite, 300 holidaymakers on the floor

In France, ten days after a big fire nearby, across the border in Spaina campsite was destroyed in Argelès-sur-Mer during a fire that covered 480 hectares, during the night from Monday to Tuesday, in the Pyrénées-Orientales department, and more than 300 holidaymakers are waiting in a gymnasium to be relocated or to return home.

The fire, which also affected the municipalities of Saint-André and Sorède, causing the evacuation of 3,000 people from several campsites on Monday evening, “is fixed, stabilized”, declared, Tuesday morning, the prefect Rodrigue Furcy, present at the gymnasium. The flames hit 30 homes and penetrated eight of them, while a warehouse was “heavily impacted”, as was one of the campsites, he said.

In the gymnasium of Argelès-sur-Mer, camp beds have been installed. Some people, including children, were still sleeping there late in the morning. Others were chatting and drinking water, seated at long tables, or queuing for information from a support cell.

At the entrance to the gymnasium, a small group were able to speak with the prefect and mayor of Argelès, Antoine Parra, to whom holidaymakers related the problems they face after their hasty evacuation. “We help them to plan for the future. We are at their side to help them in their choices and their steps, ”says Rodrigue Furcy. “We are here to collect their complaints. Some are in anguish, their good weather has turned into a nightmare, ”adds Antoine Parra.

In front of the gymnasium, Laetitia Richard recounts her disaster departure from the Chênes Rouges campsite, devastated by the flames. “We were coming back from a walk and we saw the smoke. We said to ourselves, “it’s not possible!” Last year already, we were in Gironde, but 30 km from the fire. This time it was very close,” she explains. “We loaded what we could and left. We’re alive, that’s the main thing.”

“We were in the pool and we saw smoke and ashes. When I saw the planes, we took our things,” says Stéphanie Bodinier, 49, who lives near Angers and came on vacation with her husband and daughter.

There were no casualties among the population. According to the civil security, a firefighter was seriously injured. Nineteen others were slightly injured after inhaling smoke. A total of 650 firefighters and air resources were mobilized to fight this fire, which started at the end of the afternoon on Monday in Saint-André.

Bordering Spain, Pyrénées-Orientales is the French department most affected by drought. The fire risk is very high there, recalls the prefect. “We have several fire starts per day,” he says. “The department is on drought red alert. Despite the prevention, fire starts have been observed, which shows that the sector is a real powder keg, ”analyzes Eric Brocardi, spokesman for the National Federation of Firefighters of France.

An investigation has been opened to determine the origin of the fire, which is unknown at this time.