Ash still covered the streets of Cotignac on Wednesday morning after a wildfire that broke out the previous afternoon tore through the medieval cliffside village in the heart of Provence, destroying nearly 60 homes and burning thousands of hectares across five communes overnight.
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The fire started in a field near the village of Pontevès on Tuesday and spread rapidly northward, driven by wind and drought, before reaching Cotignac during the night.
By dawn it had burned through the nearby communes, bringing in more than 900 firefighters with reinforcements from across southern France, including Marseille’s naval pompiers.
Four people were injured — two firefighters and two civilians. Around 500 residents were evacuated across the affected communes by Wednesday afternoon. Thousands of homes lost electricity, the majority in Cotignac itself.
The village, which regularly wins recognition as one of France’s most beautiful and whose summer population swells from around 2,500 to nearly 10,000, was the hardest hit.
The Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Grâces, a 16th-century pilgrimage site built on the spot where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in 1519, and the nearby Monastery of Saint-Joseph du Bessillon were evacuated and came within metres of the flames but survived.
Animals, both domestic and living in the nearby forests, also suffered throughout the night. Cattle trucks were seen being evacuated off the hills on Tuesday, while some residents told Euronews they lost horses in stables affected by the blaze overnight.
Wild boars or sangliers, which thrive across Provence in the hundreds of thousands, were spotted on the lower roads out of the village in broad daylight, running for their lives from the wildfire.
On Wednesday, teams of pompiers were still working to protect an entire field of horses in Correns, some 20 kilometres down the road from Cotignac.
For residents who lived through the night, survival depended on quick decisions and often on the kindness of strangers.
Village resident Lolita Philippon described how an elderly relative had come close to being caught in the flames in the Caillades area.
“My ex-mother-in-law got stuck in the flames. She went back home to save her cats and put them in safety. She got stuck by the flames while getting out,” Roubard told Euronews.
“Her sister got her back in the car. They wanted to leave together, but in the end they got stuck. She panicked and got out of the car.”
The woman then took refuge in her neighbour’s pool, Roubard said.
“I don’t really know how she managed to contact her son, who came to rescue her, who contacted the firefighters. He got her out of the water, the firefighters came to help her, and they directed them to Le Val,” she explained.
Many open doors to strangers
With official information slow to reach residents, the village’s informal networks carried much of the weight of communication through the night.
“We all went to the centre of the village and watched the smoke roll over the hills from a huge fire that seemed to be right behind the village, and there wasn’t a lot of information going around officially,” another resident, John Michael Peck, told Euronews.
“We all found ourselves gathering in places known to us all where everyone would be and just exchanging information, because everyone wanted to know what to do, how close the fire was,” Peck said.
“Everyone has a cousin or a friend who’s a pompier around here. And so we all had first-hand information trickling down through the grapevine, essentially, and getting to the ears that needed to hear it.”
That community network, he said, translated into practical help.
“A lot of people ended up opening their doors to strangers. Anyone who was in a location that was affected or ordered to evacuate came to the village and got filtered through the network of friends and relations and taken care of really well,” Peck explained.
“The priests and the nuns came down from Notre-Dame, which had flames literally licking the stones behind it in the woods, and were able to easily find accommodation with strangers.”
Peck said Lou Calen, an eco-resort with a Michelin Green-starred restaurant, opened its doors on Wednesday morning and gave breakfast to anyone who had been at the sanctuary.
He himself left for the home of a friend of a friend in Salernes. “I showed up with my cat and my best friend and his baby. They took us on like family.”
“That’s Cotignac,” Peck concluded.
‘They are completely lost’
The destruction has left some families with nothing. “When I went to work this morning, my colleague told me that his parents completely lost their house because of the fire last night in Cotignac,” a second resident, Manon Roubard told Euronews.
“So they had to leave. And thanks to all the community, Carcès opened free places that people who had to leave could go,” she pointed out.
“They went to Carcès. And one of their friends called them to tell them to come over and sleep for the night. So I could feel relief at least a little bit, but it was really painful for them.”
“They are completely lost. It is really complicated for people like them — older people — who can lose everything,” Roubard said.
The town of Carcès activated its emergency community plan and opened three reception facilities, including a gymnasium and the Château hall, to support evacuees from the affected area.
By Wednesday morning the fire was still active but less aggressive, according to the Var prefecture. The official assessment of damage to homes was continuing.