Brit family sleep in supermarket tent as France wildfires turn holiday into nightmare | World | News

A British family stranded in France have been forced to sleep in a tent after being evacuated due to the wildfires. Melissa Sood’s holiday to visit her grandmother with husband Sunny, 42, her daughter 14, and her brother and sister turned into a nightmare when the family was evacuated, as wildfires raged across the seaside town of Biscarrosse.

The mum, 33, and her family were left stranded on the beach, sleeping on cardboard boxes, until a family friend offered them the use of their garden in Sanguinet. Since Friday, the family have been sleeping in a supermarket tent in their friend’s garden and have no idea when they will be able to return to their home in Basingstoke, Hampshire. They can’t leave the country as the roads to the airport are blocked and they can’t return to Melissa’s grandma’s house to get their house keys. Over 200,000 people have been evacuated in France, as wildfires have burned through an area four times the size of Paris. French president Emmanuel Macron said France was experiencing “completely unprecedented” wildfire, the “toughest since World War Two”.

Melissa, a GP practice manager told Talk to the Press: “The fire looked like a scene from a disaster movie, it was terrible.

“We started to hear explosions, from the gas cannisters in people’s barbecues, it was really eerie. My daughter was really scared.”

“Our house was evacuated; we had to pull some cardboard boxes out of a recycling bin and use them to try and sleep on the grass.

“There’s no hotels anywhere, we’ve been sleeping in a tent in a kind French person’s garden since, Friday, we’ve had no sleep at all.”

Melissa and her family jetted off to France on Monday July 20, to visit her grandmother, 83, in Biscarrosse, France, about an hour south of Bordeaux.

The family had a relaxing few days, and on Thursday, July 23, headed down to the local beach, for some quality family time.

On the way back from the beach, Melissa spotted large plumes of smoke in the distance, and a van that had caught fire.

“I didn’t think much of it,” she said. “I grew up here, and I’ve seen vehicles catch fire, and then they’re put out and it’s done,” she said.

The family arrived back home, and later that evening, decided to stroll into the town centre, to get some dinner.

“All of a sudden, the police came into the restaurant and said we needed to evacuate,” Melissa said.

“We started to run back to the house and there were water planes flying over, and the air was just black. The air quality was terrible.”

They raced back to Melissa’s grandmother’s house to pick up their passports and a few belongings, before heading down to the beach.

“It was chaos, the whole town had been evacuated there,” she said.

After checking a local Facebook group, the family realised that a local school was being used as an evacuation centre, but when they arrived there, they were told by volunteers that only Melissa’s grandmother could stay there, as they couldn’t help non-residents.

“I had to beg them to even use the loo,” Melissa said.

They headed back to the beach, and, as it was now 3am, attempted to sleep, by pulling some cardboard boxes out of a bin, and lying down on the grass with them.

“After about an hour the sprinklers turned on,” Melissa said. “We got no sleep whatsoever.”

Luckily, family friends of Melissa’s grandmother, who live 10km away from Biscarosse, offered the family their garden to sleep in.

Melissa said: “We ended up having to go to the local supermarket and picking up a tent to sleep in in the garden. We’ve got no blow-up beds as they’re out of stock everywhere, and just a few blankets.”

Melissa and her family are due to fly back home on Thursday, July 30 but they still haven’t been able to get back to her grandmother’s house, to collect their belongings.

“I don’t even have my house keys,” she said. “All we’ve got is the clothes that we’re wearing, we can’t even go to the shops to buy anything, as they’re all shut.”

The roads from between where they are staying, and Bordeaux airport are also blocked due to wildfires, leaving the family unsure how they will get home.

“We keep getting alerts on our phone saying the area we are in now might be evacuated as well,” she said. “We don’t know what to do.”

The family have no idea when they will be able to return to Melissa’s grandmother’s home, or if the home is even still standing.

Sunny has spent a total of 11 hours on the phone with insurance company Philip Williams, who said they may be able to pay for expenses, such as the cost of the tent.

They have also contacted the British Embassy, but since it is in Paris, and the family aren’t able to get there, there’s nothing they can do.

“There’s absolutely no help for people like us, camping in gardens,” Sunny, a police officer said.

“Somebody needs to take ownership, either the insurance company, the British Embassy, or French officials.”