A wildfire that reached Marseille is pushed back but not extinguished

A wildfire that reached Marseille is pushed back but not extinguished

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — A wildfire that reached France’s second-largest city and left 110 injured was pushed back overnight but was not yet extinguished Wednesday, authorities said. Marseille’s mayor lifted a confinement order for tens of thousands of people.

Mayor Benoit Payan said on broadcaster France-Info that the fire was in ‘’net regression” Wednesday morning after racing toward the historic Mediterranean port city Tuesday, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate and the population of an entire city district to barricade themselves indoors on official orders.

Spurred by hot summer winds, the fire grounded all flights to and from Marseille and halted train traffic in most of the surrounding area Tuesday. Train, road and plane traffic remained complicated Wednesday.

The mayor said 110 people were treated for smoke inhalation and related injuries.

More than 1,000 firefighters were deployed to tackle the fire, which broke out near the town of Les Pennes-Mirabeau before racing toward Marseille. Some 720 hectares were hit by the blaze, the prefecture said.

The prefecture described the fire as ’’particularly virulent.″ It came on a cloudless, windy day after a lengthy heat wave around Europe left the area parched and at heightened risk for wildfires. Several have broken out in southern France in recent days, including one in the Aude region that has burned some 2,000 hectares and continued to rage Wednesday.

Light gray smoke gave the sky over Marseille’s old port a dusty aspect as water-dropping planes tried to extinguish the fire in the outskirts of the city, which has some 900,000 inhabitants.


Source link

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Sign up to receive awesome content in your inbox, every week.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

More From Author

Ohtani takes Miz deep but phenom fans 12 in win

Ohtani takes Miz deep but phenom fans 12 in win

Bailey’s inside-the-park, walk-off HR 1st since ’16

Bailey’s inside-the-park, walk-off HR 1st since ’16

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *