Four killed as forest fires rage in Riviera

FIREFIGHTERS battled to control forest fires sweeping through southern France that have killed four people and forced thousands to flee their homes, as President Jacques Chirac promised tough penalties for arsonists.

A British pensioner and her granddaughter died as they tried to flee huge forest fires set by arsonists that tore through the French Riviera.

Margaret Timson, 63, and Kirsty Egerton, 15, from the Manchester area, were on a walking holiday in the south of France. Another two people were killed in the Riviera fires which local mayor Luc Jousse warned were “a new form of terrorism”.

The fires were the worst ever in the Var region, an area thick with pine trees, and clouds of yellow and grey smoke hung in the sky.

The other fatalities were identified as a Dutch woman, who died while being transferred to a hospital by helicopter from Sainte-Maxime, and a Polish man.

Var police chief Jacques Badout said Mrs Timson and her granddaughter were apparently trying to escape the flames in their car when they found themselves trapped near La Garde-Freinet.

About 60 homes were destroyed or badly damaged as the fires raced through the area, consuming more than 21,000 acres of woodland.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy flew to the ravaged area and called the damage “an ecological massacre”.

But by late afternoon, firefighters said they had the blazes under control. Dozens of Italian firefighters had raced to help 1,500 of their French colleagues battling the flames. About 400 French troops were also providing support on the ground.

The blazes were concentrated in the areas around Frejus, 25 miles from Cannes and Sainte-Maxime, to the west. Mr Sarkozy denounced whoever was responsible as “deranged”.

At least seven campsites packed with tourists were evacuated near Sainte-Maxime and 11 others near Frejus. Homes were also evacuated in scattered areas.

Mr Chirac, on a trip to Tahiti, promised that “the guilty will be sought out with extreme rigour” and “sanctions will be of an extraordinary severity”.

Mr Baudot, the Var fire chief, cautioned that arson was not confirmed.

But he noted that 28 fires were started yesterday, and “there is little probability that this is by chance”.