7000 BOMBS EXPLODE IN FOREST FIRE

Grey River Argus, 20 August 1949, Page 5

7000 BOMBS EXPLODE IN FOREST FIRE

PARIS, August 19. . The French Ministry of the Interior estimates that the fires in southwestern France have ravaged a Quarter of a million acres of forest land. The Ministry emphasised that the penalty for arson is life imprisonBetween 7000 and 8000 tons of bombs dispersed round La Rochelle airfield exploded to-day as a forest fire swept through the pine woods surrounding the airfield. The explosions could be heard 30 miles away, and huge columns of smoke rose from the area. The nolice ordered the evacuation of women and children from a radius of six miles around the airfield and requisitioned all available 'vehicles to get them away. All available troops and forest fire-fighters in the region wer e summoned as a plane circled over the area directing operations by radio. , _ Trains between Bordeaux and La Rochelle were stopped outside the danger zone. The explosions were started when a box of explosives in a munitions dump attached to the airfield exploded in the heat. Forest fires have encircled the small town of Losse in the Landes area of south-western France. One thousand soldiers have arrived to attack the flames. Thirty-two wagon loads of grain and forage were destroyed by the fires last night.