Forest fires in France and Greece not yet under control

The forest fires that have been raging in France and Greece for several days have not yet been brought under control. The weather conditions in France have improved; the wind has calmed down a bit. But in the Var, fires are still raging in 7,000 hectares of forest. Most of this area, near Saint-Tropez on the Côte d’Azur, has been reduced to ashes.

Seven thousand people have been evacuated to France since Monday evening. At least two people died in the Grimaud fire.

“Ashes are everywhere”

The Dutch Astrid Pompen is on vacation with her husband and two children in Plan-de-la-Tour, a place close to forest fires. “It started on Monday night, it got very dark. At first, we thought very innocently that it was a thunderstorm and we fell asleep,” Pompen said in the newspaper. OUR Radio 1 News. “The next day we saw big clouds of smoke all over the place, so it wasn’t quite right after all.”

The village seven kilometers from their vacation home was evacuated. “The fire started very quickly, we were afraid. We are in a stone house, but surrounded by forest. We searched all over the internet and found a call from the mayor to evacuate the area to our left. But we didn’t know. if that applied to us as well. “

Pompen had originally planned to stay in the rented house on Tuesday evening. “But the smoke got so thick, also in our house. And the ashes spread everywhere. So we thought he was no longer responsible for sleeping there. We drove up to the coast with the children. ” After an unsuccessful search for a place to sleep, the man van Pompen found a message on Twitter with the location of the shelters. “It was kind of a gymnasium. That’s where we rode.”

Fires are also raging in Greece

Forest fires are also raging in Greece. A fire in Vilia, 60 kilometers west of Athens, has already destroyed thousands of hectares of forest in the past four days. Several villages in the region were evacuated.

Poland has sent firefighters to the region to help Greece. Strong winds are expected later in the day which could hamper the work.

Hundreds of firefighters fight the blaze near Athens: