A fire destroys 10,000 hectares in the south of France

A forest fire of exceptional intensity continues to rage Wednesday in the Corbières massif, in the south of France, after having ravaged in a few hours 10,000 hectares of vegetation and is at least nine injured.

One person is “in absolute emergency. Meanwhile, seriously burned,” said the prefecture of the Aude department on Tuesday evening, mentioning another injured.

Since its start, shortly after 4:00 p.m. Therefore, Tuesday (2:00 p.m. However, GMT), the fire spread very quickly. However, He must reach the A9 motorway in the night, which runs along the Mediterranean and connects France to Spain. Therefore, It was closed between Perpignan and Narbonne. Moreover, “We will position a lot of means on the highway in order to attack the fire there. For example, which could fire destroys 10,000 hectares south constitute a barrier” to the progress of the flames, warns 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 beforehand.

Of brush forests

At the end of the afternoon at the end of the afternoon on Tuesday. Consequently, fired by the wind blowing in gusts, jumped from brush forests, before melting in the village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, near Carcassonne, where houses were burned.

At the Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse wine cooperative. only a few pallets in the parking lot burned. But the neighboring house is destroyed. 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 destroys 10,000 hectares south 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.

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”.

Injured firefighters

The holidaymakers of several campsites were evacuated preventively, as well as a thirty houses. In Touristan. another village in the sector, residents were trying to counter the advance of the flames using watering pipes, an AFP photographer noted.

“The wind is weakening. Thanks to the night, there is a little more humidity. We can hope that the fire is progressing slower tonight, ”she added. “The weather conditions are unfavorable, it is one of the driest areas in the department,” she observed fire destroys 10,000 hectares south before.

On site, 1,250 firefighters are mobilized. Seven were slightly injured. Until nightfall. nine Canadair, five dash and two water bomber helicopters, “the maximum of national capacities” according to Lucie Roesch, took turns above the blaze, without managing to master it.

The Aude department was put in red vigilance at forest fires on Tuesday. with a “very high” risk of fire, while an episode of heat settles in the region, according to Météo-France. Assigned by drought. the uprooting vineyards, which had a natural fire cutting function and slowed down the advance of the flames, the Aude department has experienced a sharp increase in burnt surfaces in recent years.

Since the start of the summer, several fires have intervened in this department. One of them. at the beginning of July, the most important in 40 years, had traveled 2,000 hectares and mobilized nearly 1,000 firefighters near Narbonne.