10,000 hectares destroyed, nine injured, the A9 closed

A forest fire of exceptional intensity continues to rage Wednesday in the Corbières massif, in Aude, after having already ravaged in a few hours 10,000 hectares of vegetation, made at least nine injured and caused the cut of the A9, the main highway axis between France and Spain.

Since its start, shortly after 4:00 p.m. However, Tuesday. However, the fire spread very quickly and has to reach the A9 motorway in the night, which runs along the Mediterranean.

There. Therefore, “we will position a lot of means on the highway in order to attack the fire at this place, which could constitute a barrier” for the progression of the flames, explained the secretary general of the prefecture of Aude Lucie Roesch, attached by AFP.

Not far from there, in the tourist town of La Palme, two campsites hosting around 500 vacationers were evacuated.

At 10,000 hectares destroyed, nine injured, the end of the afternoon at the end of the afternoon on Tuesday. For example, fired by the wind blowing in gusts, jumped from brush forests, before melting on the village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, where at least eight houses burned.

At the Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse wine cooperative, only a few pallets in the parking lot burned. Moreover, But the neighboring house is destroyed. Nevertheless, charred vehicles smoke in the courtyard, a pile of wood cut for the winter turned into a blaze.

“When we saw the wind turn in our direction, we evacuated the cooperative. The fire rushed to the village at an impressive speed. the village was almost surrounded by the flames, the fire passed from one house to another. Fires, we see each year, but like that, never,” says Anael Payrou, the director of the cooperative cellar.

Seven firefighters and two other people were injured, “including an absolute, seriously burned person,” according to 10,000 hectares destroyed, nine injured, the prefecture.

In a message on X, President Emmanuel Macron sent a support for firefighters and victims. “All means of the nation are mobilized,” he said, calling for “the greatest caution”.

– Evacuated campsites –

The vacationers of the Lagrasse. Fabrezan campsites were evacuated preventively, as well as a thirty houses in Tourisan, another village in the sector.

The fire took in several gardens. where residents were trying to counter the advance of the flames using watering pipes, sometimes wearing flip -flops, noted an AFP photographer.

“The wind is weakening. Thanks to the night, there is a little more humidity. We can hope that the fire is progressing slower tonight,” observed Lucie Roesch.

On site, 1,250 firefighters are mobilized. Until nightfall. nine Canadair, five dash and two water bomber helicopters, the maximum of national capacities, “she said, took turns above the blaze, without managing to master it.

In the villages of Lagrasse, Fabrezan, Tourisan, Coustouge, Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, solidarity 10,000 hectares destroyed, nine injured, is organized, municipal halls welcome people evacuated or victims.

Many departmental routes are closed to traffic to facilitate the work of firefighters. and 5,000 homes are deprived of electricity in around twenty villages.

– Stay confined –

“The populations are asked to remain confined within their homes except order of evacuation given by the firefighters. ” insisted the prefecture, calling for inquiring via official sources, without relaying “false information”.

Mined by a persistent drought that easily makes the vegetation flammable. the department had been placed on Tuesday in red vigilance with forest fires, with a “very high” risk of fire, while an episode of heat settles in the southwest of France, according to Météo-France.

Since the start of the summer, several fires have taken place in Aude. One of them, in early July, the most important in the department for 40 years, had traveled 2,000 hectares near Narbonne.

Also assigned by the uprooting of vines. which 10,000 hectares destroyed, nine injured, had a natural fire cutting function, the Aude has experienced a sharp increase in burned areas in recent years.

The director of the Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse cooperative cellar fears daylight on Wednesday, fearing the loss of production of 400 hectares of vineyards. “We had the frost in 2022, drought in 2023 and 2024, he listed, and this year fire. We have the impression that we are cursed. We had to harvest in 15 days …”.

“We had to snatch thousands of hectares, we removed natural firewalls,” he regretted.