The explosion of a shell during the fire at the Canjuers military camp in the Var slightly injured a firefighter and caused hearing problems in 18 others, the Var firefighters said on Tuesday.
The incident happened around 10:30 p.m. Monday, while firefighters were still battling the violent fire that broke out at the camp on Saturday.
shocked firefighters
A Var firefighter was lightly hit by shrapnel after it went through the windshield of his truck. “Eighteen firefighters from the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence were shocked and suffered more or less from hearing problems,” added the firefighters.
The blast also lightly affected a firefighter from the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, a soldier who was creating access, and five firefighters from the Var. The shell exploded “more than 500 m from the “red” zone polluted by ammunition from artillery fire”, in one of the sectors which experienced a resumption of fire in the afternoon.
Tuesday morning, the fire had covered a total of 1,000 hectares of brush, without leaving the military ground, located several kilometers from the first dwellings. After having dropped retardant products on its edge on Monday evening, thanks to aerial means, the firefighters spent the whole night extinguishing the hot spots of the fire. On Monday, the Marseille prosecutor’s office had confirmed the opening of an investigation “on the count of involuntary destruction by fire”, followed by the military prosecutor’s office.