The fire at the Canjuers military training camp (Var) destroyed 1,000 hectares of vegetation in three days, but remains contained within the limits of the camp, the Var firefighters told AFP on Monday.
Monday evening, more than 320 civilian and military firefighters still took turns on the spot, to deal with the fire which raged in this "plant desert" of grass and brush, in the words of Captain Olivier Pécot of Sdis du Var.
The emergency services mobilized significant air resources, two Dash and four Canadair, to drop retardant barriers on the ridges, until nightfall, "so that the fire remains within the limits of the military camp". , according to Olivier Pécot.
Unexploded shells
The fire started around 9 a.m. on Saturday in a “polluted” area, that is to say where there are shells and unexploded explosives, which delayed the intervention of firefighters for safety reasons.
It was indeed necessary to wait for the flames to come out of this firing perimeter to be able to intervene.
On Monday, the Marseille prosecutor's office confirmed the opening of an investigation "on the count of involuntary destruction by fire", followed by the military prosecutor's office.
Much of the fire remains very difficult to access and firefighters are being dropped off by helicopter.
"But in the afternoon, with the sun and the wind reactivating, the fire resumes in places where there are no firefighters on the ground," explained Olivier Pécot.
Isolated, the military complex of Canjuers is located tens of kilometers from homes, which means that there is, according to Olivier Pécot, “no issue in terms of human activities”.
As a precaution, however, the gendarmes block the road near the camp, a tourist route that leads to the Gorges du Verdon.
