On an ordinary July, holidaymakers climb Europe’s largest sand dune to its summit to admire the panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean beyond. This year its heights are deserted, shrouded in smoke, with firefighting planes buzzing overhead.
The Dune de Pilat is a famous attraction on France’s west coast, whose sands rise abruptly from thick pine forests that shade busy campsites and caravan parks in the summer months.
This year the forests are ablaze, sending up thick plumes of smoke that obscure the sun as they drift across the sea or onto the city of Bordeaux, 60 kilometers to the north-east.
Around 6,500 hectares of forest have burned near the dune so far – an area 12 km long and 7.0 km wide – another 12,800 hectares have been lost to a separate and larger fire further east inland.
“We were faced with a wall of fire 40 to 50 meters high. It was a tinderbox,” fire department spokesman Matthieu Jomain told AFP on Tuesday from a blackened area next to the dune.
“The wind carried sparks several hundred meters,” he added.
Around 2,000 firefighters are fighting around the clock to bring the inferno under control, aided by helicopters and Canadair firefighting planes, which dive into the ocean to fill their tanks.
Around 20,000 people were evacuated near the dune, including residents of the tourist town of La Teste-de-Buch, where the temperature hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.
“The firefighters rang the doorbell to tell us we had to evacuate immediately and then the police came five minutes later and told us the same thing,” one pensioner told AFP as he drove away in a car with his partner and pets .
– “Amazing” Firefighters –
At least five campsites were destroyed by the blaze, including one that was featured in a popular French comedy film series called Camping.
“I got a message from a firefighter saying, ‘We’re sorry,'” the director of the burned-out Camping de la Dune campsite, Franck Couderc, told BFM Television.
“They shouldn’t be sorry. It’s amazing what they’ve done,” he said.
The local zoo has begun evacuating its animals at risk of inhaling the smoke, with 363 out of 850 already being sent in a special convoy to a facility near Bordeaux.
However, around a dozen animals succumbed to the stress and heat, the national environment ministry said.
The entire area around the Dune de Pilat thrives in the summer months with tourists who are drawn to the nearby Bay of Arcachon, surfing beaches in the south or the posh Cap Ferret with its five-star hotels.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Patrick Davet, the mayor of La Teste-de-Buch.
“Economically it will be very difficult for them and very difficult for the city because we are a tourist city and we need the season,” he added.
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