San Francisco Frontiers - Fire and destruction at Europe's biggest sand dune

The Dune de Pilat is a famous attraction on France's west coast, with its sands rising abruptly out of thick pine forests that shade bustling camp sites and caravan parks in the summer months.

This year, the forests are ablaze, sending up thick clouds of smoke that blot out the sun as they drift over the ocean or towards the city of Bordeaux, 60 kilometres (36 miles) to the north east.

Around 6,500 hectares of forest have burned so far near the dune -- an area 12 km long and 7.0 km wide -- with another 12,800 hectares lost to a separate and bigger fire further inland to the east.

"We were faced with a wall of fire that was 40-50 metres high. It was a tinderbox," fire service spokesman Matthieu Jomain told AFP on Tuesday from a blackened area next to the dune.

"There were sparks being carried several hundred metres by the wind," he added.

Around 2,000 firefighters are battling round the clock to bring the infernos under control, backed by helicopters and Canadair fire planes which swoop down into the ocean to fill their tanks.

Around 20,000 people have been evacuated near the dune, including residents in the tourist town of La Teste-de-Buch where the temperature hovered around 40 Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.

"The firemen rang the doorbell to tell us we had to evacuate right away and then the police arrived five minutes later and told us the same thing," a pensioner told AFP as he left with his partner and pets in a car.

- 'Amazing' firefighters -

At least five campsites have been destroyed by the flames, including one that featured in a popular recent series of French comedy films called "Camping".

"I had a message from a fireman saying 'we're sorry'," the director of the gutted "Camping de la Dune" site, Franck Couderc, told BFM television.

"They shouldn't be sorry. It's amazing what they did," he said.

The local zoo has begun evacuating its animals which were in danger of inhaling the smoke, with 363 out of 850 already sent in a special convoy to a facility near Bordeaux.

Around a dozen animals succumbed to the stress and heat, however, the national environment ministry said.

The whole area around the Dune de Pilat lives off tourists in the summer months who are drawn to the nearby Bay of Arcachon, surfing beaches to the south, or the upmarket Cap Ferret area with its five-star hotels.

"It's heartbreaking," said Patrick Davet, the mayor of La Teste-de-Buch.

burs-adp/jh/cdw

V.Mitchell--SFF