FIRES IN FRANCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 265, 22 August 1949, Page 4

FIRES IN FRANCE

Heavy Death Toll (Rec. 9.30 a.m.) PARIS, Aug. 21. The official death toll of the forest fires in South - Western - France was given as 60 in a Ministry of the Interior communique published in Parts to-night. Paris newspapers, however, claimed that the deaths were nearer 100. The communique said that 42 civilians and 18 soldiers had died fighting the fires last week. . The great forest fire outside Bordeaux, in which a number of people lost their, lives and many thousands of acres have been devastated, is now under control. Several thousand firemen, troops, and volunteers, who have been fighting the blaze for three days, were helped to-day by a drop in the wind which had fanned the flames. The fire-swept area where the casualties occurred lies from seven to 25 miles south and south-west of Bordeaux, in the country of rolling vineyards, heath , and pine woods. Many country houses of Bordeaux people, a chateaux belonging to vineyard owners and wealthy estates, are in the fire-devastated area. Hundreds of Red Cross and rescue squads are combing the area in search of victims, most of whom were marooned by the speed of the flames or were asphyxiated- by smoke.