{"id":531558,"date":"2026-07-03T19:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531558\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T19:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:02:09","slug":"irish-woman-recalls-moment-her-family-knew-they-had-to-flee-french-wildfires-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531558\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish woman recalls moment her family knew they had to flee French wildfires \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Irish woman has described how wildfires in southern France<\/a> spread \u201cextremely fast\u201d in windy conditions as she rushed to get her family to safety.<\/p>\n

Dubliner Kim O\u2019Connell had to evacuate from her holiday campsite after wildfires spread across the area on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The extreme heat created parched conditions in southern France, where firefighters are battling several wildfires.<\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9<\/a> Radio 1, O\u2019Connell said she was sitting by the pool with her family, including her two children aged six and eight, when they saw smoke moving in their direction.<\/p>\n

She said people started to leave so they did the same. The family went back to their accommodation where they retrieved some of the children\u2019s toys and their passports.<\/p>\n

They were told by campsite staff to evacuate and they left the area on foot, heading north along the beach.<\/p>\n

After 40 minutes of walking, they arrived at a port and managed to book a taxi. The fire had become \u201cvery intense\u201d. O\u2019Connell said it started as a plume of white smoke and then became brown in colour.<\/p>\n

As the family and others evacuated, they could hear explosions, which she assumed to be gas canisters exploding. She said it was \u201cobviously scary\u201d for her children. <\/p>\n

She described how, as they walked along the beach, the smoke was \u201cgetting worse and worse\u201d. Strong winds caused the fire to spread \u201cextremely fast\u201d, becoming louder and louder as the flames grew. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell, who said she was running on adrenaline \u201call day\u201d on Thursday, added: \u201cI\u2019d never heard noise like it before.\u201d <\/p>\n

She was hoping to return to the campsite on Friday to see the extent of the damage. \u201cThere\u2019s a possibility everything is gone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She believes the fire has since been extinguished, adding there is \u201cno billowing smoke any more\u201d.<\/p>\n

The family has been staying in a hotel in a village with some other evacuees. \u201cWe\u2019re in France and the food is nice,\u201d she said. \u201cThe sun is still shining. We\u2019ll make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laurent \u2060Nu\u00f1ez, the French interior minister, said three fires, \u2060two \u200bof which broke out on the western edge of the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, had scorched a combined \u2060area of 1,210 hectares (2,990 acres). He was due to visit the region on Friday.<\/p>\n

The wildfires have ravaged homes and campsites in the south of the country, forcing thousands to evacuate.<\/p>\n

Fire crews made progress overnight on one of the largest outbreaks, which has burned more than 12sq km in the Mediterranean departments of H\u00e9rault, Aude and Bouches-du-Rh\u00f4ne, according to a spokesman for France\u2019s Civil Security agency.<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs<\/a> said the Irish embassy in Paris is providing consular assistance to a number of Irish citizens affected by the fire.<\/p>\n

In a statement, it added: \u201cIrish citizens affected by wildfires can contact the embassy for assistance at +33 1 44 17 67 00.\u201d<\/p>\n

It advised citizens with plans to visit the affected area to check the advice of local authorities before travelling and to keep updated on local news.<\/p>\n

The French weather service has launched a\u202ffire-alert map\u202fto help travellers stay informed. The map is available at meteofrance.com, it said. \u2013 Additional reporting: Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irish woman has described how wildfires in southern France spread \u201cextremely fast\u201d in windy conditions as she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1844,246,1814,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-531558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-environment","tag-france","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}