FRENCH FOREST FIRES

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 91, 22 August 1923, Page 5

FRENCH FOREST FIRES

-■■ ■ » MILES OF COUNTRY BURNED. DESERTERS’ (CAMP DESTROYED. Press /^ascciatlon—-ttopyright, Australian. -aivj N.Z, Cable Association. (Received 8.50 a.m.) Paris, August 21. The Riviera forest tire has now Vavagcd an area of sixty miles between Brignoles and Cannes. The flam &s are. still unabated A*ll that remains of the magnificent fonjst of Man res is a mass of cinders. r Mie flames reached a secret place in the Manxes Mountains where Fi.vnch army deserters and Gorman prisoners who escaped from prison camps have lived for the past few ! years. They had to flee for their lives.

Five forests besides Maures were completely destroyed. Ayaguiguam, which was filled with visitors, was only saved by heroic efforts. Senegalese troops were rushed to the tspot and cut down miles of forest to check the flames. The Forest of Estorel presents a tragic scene. It is charred and ruined, and painful to those who have known it s loveliness. About eighteen miles in length was ablaze when the fire was at its height. The troops and firemen were impotent. Thousand of acres were laid hare.* The little town of Maudelieu is practically in ruins. Over two thousand people are homeless. It is remarkable that there were only four or five deaths, of whom tw r o were children who were driven by the flames irom a villa and perished among the burning timber only a few ’yards from a road which w r ou!d have led to safety. Aeroplanes from the naval air station at Toulon carried many English and American visitors to safety.