Around 60 hectares are now estimated to have been lost to the fire in the commune of Bairols, a village of 100 people to the north of Nice.  

The wildfire in the Bairols commune, a relatively remote village found an hour’s drive north of Nice and on the road to the popular mountain resorts of Isola and Auron, began on Tuesday 25th July.  

But despite the best efforts of firefighters on the ground and aerial support teams, the fire was reportedly still “very active” at lunchtime on Thursday 27th July, and had spread to an estimated 60 hectares of woodland.  

The main issue facing the firefighting services is the extremely difficult terrain. 100 or so firefighters are believed to be onsite tackling the blaze, and a number of these were dropped into target zones by helicopter, according to Nice Matin, because of the complexity of accessing the area by other means.  

Waterbombing helicopters were drafted in on the first afternoon of the blaze and are continuing to provide support to the teams on the ground on this second day of action.   

ELSEWHERE 

Two additional fires in Cagnes sur Mer and Falicon, which saw 10 and seven hectares of land destroyed by the flames respectively, have been brought under control, but firefighting personnel are reportedly still surveying the sites.

In both instances, large numbers of firefighters from the Sapeurs Pompiers 06 were brought it to help stop the spread of the fires and extinguish them as quickly as possible due to their urban contexts.  

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Photo credit: Sapeurs Pompiers 06