On the outskirts of Arles, eight residential buildings and several small businesses were destroyed by the flames, according to La Provence, a local newspaper. The paper added that the fire was fanned by the so-called Mistral wind. To fight the blaze, 120 firefighters, firefighting aircraft and a helicopter were deployed.
"This is a wind that has the characteristic of drying out the vegetation and making it more susceptible to fire and favouring its spread," David Gaidet, the head of the local fire services told the newspaper.
He said that due to the drought the local landscape was already as parched by the beginning of July as it usually is by the beginning of August.
Extreme caution should be exercised, Gaidet stressed, noting that nine out of ten forest fires were caused by human negligence, usually by discarded cigarette butts or from makeshift fires. Access to most forest areas in the mountains has now been banned.
