Keystone-SDA
The biggest fire of summer in France left a dead, a woman who died in her home in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, and nine injured, said the Aude prefecture on Wednesday. A person is missing, while the disaster “remains very active”.
(Keystone-ATS) Since its start on Tuesday, shortly after 4:00 p.m., the fire has traveled more than 11,000 hectares of garrigue and resinous, destroyed or damaged 25 homes, said the secretary general of the prefecture, Lucie Roesch.
Two of the wounded are civilians, including one in absolute emergency after being seriously burned. The other seven injured are firefighters, two of whom were hospitalized
At dawn Wednesday, 1500 firefighters continued to fight against the flames, while Canadair were preparing to take off with daybreak. The fire remains very active and the weather conditions will still be unfavorable for the day, said the manager.
Closed motorway
The very provisional material assessment also reports on around thirty calcined vehicles, while 2,500 households are currently deprived of electricity.
The A9 motorway between France and Spain has been closed in both directions as well as many departmental routes throughout the sector concerned by the fire.
The efforts are focused on the village of Roquefort-des-Corbières that the fire reached before dawn on Wednesday. The firefighters managed to prevent him from joining the highway. On the other side of the A9, two campsites were evacuated as a precaution in the tourist town of La Palme.
This is the biggest fire in summer in France, still increasing despite the deployment on Tuesday of the entire national air system.
At the end of July, civil security had recorded more than 15,000 hectares burned throughout French territory for 9,000 fire departures, mainly on the Mediterranean coast.