Posted on 07/29/2003 7:21:20 PM PDT by Destro
Deadly Fires Sweep French Riviera, Arson Suspected
ROQUEBRUNE-SUR-ARGENS, France, July 29, 2003 (ENS) - At least four people have died, and more than 50 homes have been destroyed in fires that swept 8,000 hectares of pine forests in the Maures mountains behind the French Riviera over the past 24 hours. Thousands of vacationers have been evacuated from seven campsites in France's premier resort area.
Some 30 fires blazed up at about the same time Monday afternoon in the Var region between the cities of Toulon and Nice. Investigators have found bottles with wicks inside, leading to suspicions that the fires were started deliberately with gasoline bombs.
The mayor of Roquebrune-Sur-Argens, Luc Jousse, called the fires "a new form of terrorism." By 10 o'clock last night local time, fire had reached the edge of the seaside resort of Sainte-Maxime on the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, cutting electricity and telephone lines. Nearly 1,500 people fled to safety late Monday night.
Today President Jacques Chirac threatened "sanctions of an extraordinary gravity" against those who may have set the fires.
Three women, two British and one Dutch, and a Polish man lost their lives in the fires, Var fire chief Colonel Jacques Baudot told the AP.
Nine firefighting planes have been dropping tons of water onto the burning mountain slopes. About 1,500 French firefighters who battled the blazes all night got some help from Italian firefighters and equipment this morning.
The fires are the worst ever in the Var region, which is still recovering from devastating forest fires on July 18 that blackened 25,000 acres and forced the evacuation of thousands of people from Riviera vacation spots.
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Monday that the army would send reinforcements to help fight the fires. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy traveled to the stricken area today.
Firefighters in southern Italy are also battling wildfires, which have damaged wide areas of Calabria and in the area of Salento in the Apulia region, fire officials said. Again here, arson is suspected, and record temperatures and high winds are hampering efforts to extinguish the blazes.
On Saturday a fire on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius was extinguished. Several hundred crews are busy all over Italy with firefighting operations. "The high temperatures and the drought endanger southern Italy completely," said Giuseppe Di Croce, general director of the Italian Foresters Society.
On the island of Corsica, fires are spreading to the north of Bonifacio where a man was seriously burned, and evacuations are being carried out by air and sea.
The Arizona Republic
SATURDAY
July 12, 2003
PHOENIX -- National forests in the West were considered targets for al-Qaida attacks, according to an FBI memo to law enforcement agencies dated June 25. A senior al-Qaida detainee told federal investigators he had developed a plan to set midsummer forest fires in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, according to the document, obtained by The Arizona Republic.
"The detainee believed that significant damage to the U.S. economy would result and once it was realized that the fires were terrorist acts, U.S. citizens would put pressure on the U.S. government to change its policies," the memo said.
The unidentified detainee said he hoped to create several large, catastrophic wildfires at once. The Forest Service took note of the warning, a spokeswoman said, but didn't really change any of its policies or operating patterns.
In fact, many forest law enforcement officers contacted by The Republic had no idea the warning had been issued at all.
"If you see something suspicious in an airport, report it. Likewise, if you see something suspicious in a forest, report it." said Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
But neither the interagency fire center nor the Forest Service chose to report the warning to the public. The decision to release the information was up to the FBI. A spokeswoman for the bureau's Denver office, which drew up the memo, declined to comment.
The al-Qaida detainee told investigators that his plan called for three or four operatives to travel to the United States and set timed explosive devices in forests and grasslands. The devices would be set to detonate after the operatives had left the country.
But the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Attorney's Office in Wyoming could not evaluate the source or the accuracy of the information.
In the days since Sept. 11, 2001, the idea of intentionally setting fires as a terrorist act has been bandied about in the fire community.
"I thought about it a lot after 9-11," said Don Riddle, the law enforcement officer for the Manti-LaSal National Forest in Utah. "How hard would it be for someone to get in a small plane and fly over a forest dropping fusees [flares] or firing off a flare gun as they flew over?"
Albanian Muslims also burned down the Greek forests: The 1993 Forest Fire Season in Greece
Equally important, a wave of illegal immigrants from Albania crossed the border in Northern Greece and, through remote forest trails, crossed the mountainous regions in order to seek temporary employment at the urban centres of Thessaloniki and Athens. These people, having to spend nights in the open air inside the forests, have caused many forest fires by negligence (abandoned camping fires) or malice (animosity towards immigration authorities). Many of these fires burned in areas of low fire risk, such as the high elevation forests of fir, beech and black pine of Northern Greece.
At the same time, many extraordinary events marked the unique 1993 fire season in Greece:
An arson fire on the island of Ikaria in the Northeast Aegean sea, cost the lives of 11 farmers who were burned in their efforts to escape from the fire or were suffocated by smoke inside their homes. A National day of mourning was declared, and the Prime Minister visited the fire-stricken island, promising increased fire protection measures for all Greece.
Unlike other years, Northern Greece experienced many destructive fires, similar to those that traditionally occur in the drier and more flammable regions of Southern Greece which are covered by Mediterranean-type vegetation (maquis, garriques). Thus, high-elevation forest of fir, beech and black pine, located in Northern Greece, that had never experienced fires since the Second World War due to existing climatic (cold, humid areas) and socio-economic conditions (lack of population pressure or grazing intensity), were destroyed by fires set by illegal immigrants who entered the country through them. The geographical regions of Epirus and Macedonia had a record-high of 400 and 600 fires, respectively, which burned over 20,000 ha of high forest. Thus, Northern Greece did not escape forest fires this year.
The National Parks of "Valia Calda" in Epirus, covered with magnificent black pine forests, and "Olympus Mountain" in Macedonia, covered by fir forests, were burned. Thus, picturesque landscapes of amazing beauty and historical heritage were turned into ashes, leaving homeless the "12 Deities" of the Ancient Greek Pantheon!
When you see a fire in the forest, leave.
Flucking morons....it would happen, but not in any way they would want... like sealed borders....mass deportations not to mention the armed folks who have already had enough and are on the edge. They seriously do not know how we react to being pushed. We have still shown great restraint so far.....
I am not going to criticize Frenchmen, or French women either, they are tough hombres and highly competent. Their nat'l gov't seems indecisive and ineffective, and most of all has an image problem when it comes to international affairs? The French could take back their country.
I bet they're shaking in their boots now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.