The disaster lasted ten days. Var firefighters announced Thursday that they had officially declared the violent fire that killed two people and devastated 7,000 hectares of vegetation on the Côte d’Azur as “extinct” in mid-August. This forest fire, known as Gonfaron fire, was declared extinguished at noon this Thursday, according to firefighters: “under control” since Monday – that is to say, it no longer showed resumption of flames -, the disaster no longer has embers.
As of last Friday, the fire, which claimed the lives of two people and led to the evacuation of thousands of people in the hinterland of Saint-Tropez, had been declared “fixed”, but the firefighters had feared further resumptions thanks to the wind that blew all weekend on this fire which is the biggest in France this year.
Saturday, in an area close to the fire, a 56-year-old man was arrested when he had “deliberately set fire to a piece of forest”, according to the Draguignan prosecutor’s office. The firefighters were quickly able to extinguish this disaster. Monday evening, the arsonist was indicted for attempting to destroy a forest and placed in pre-trial detention. He faces a 15-year prison sentence.