FOREST FIRES KILL 60 IN S.W. FRANCE

Grey River Argus, 23 August 1949, Page 5

FOREST FIRES KILL 60 IN S.W. FRANCE

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 Paris to-night. Paris newspapers, however, claimed that the deaths were nearer 100.

The communique ' said _ that 42 civilians and 18 soldiers 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 casualties occurred lies from seven to 25 miles south and south-west of Bordeaux in a country of rolling vineyards, heath and pine woods. Many country houses of Bordeaux people, chateaux belonging to vineyard owners and wealthy estates are in the fire-devastated area.