On the A9 motorway, an essential axis which connects the Rhône valley to Spain, but also on the departmentals around the fire, many French and foreign vacationers found themselves blocked for kilometers of traffic jams.
If the motorway axis has remained open despite the thick smoke, traffic was cut on the departmental road 6009 to facilitate the work of the 630 firefighters who remain on the bridge for the night.
At the end of the evening, embers were still visible on the edge of one of the roads near Sigean. Many trees were charred along the road while a burned smell was still emerging.
Due to the darkness, the air support of six Canadians, four dash, a tracking plane and two water bomber helicopters, was stopped around 9:30 p.m., said the Aude Rémi Recio sub-prefect.
The fire would have left in the early afternoon on Saturday, on the edge of the highway in the town of Sigean, according to the sub-prefect. At the end of the afternoon, the Sigean’s communal backup plan was activated and a gymnasium was mobilized to accommodate residents of a dozen evacuated homes. They were allowed to return to their home at the end of the day, while the fire was heading for the neighboring town of La Palme.
Preventively, the prefecture ordered the evacuation of two campsites, the Côte-Vermeille and Cap du Roc campsite, as well as a subdivision of the town of Port-la-Nouvelle. Two gymnasiums of the town were made available to accommodate the 1,000 vacationers and the residents evacuated. In the evening, holidaymakers were able to return to their campsites, the risk having been dismissed.
Due to the presence of a high-voltage line under the drop-down areas of water bombers, electricity was partly cut, impacting 5,000 homes in this coastal town.
“A month of June historically very hot and dry”
Météo-France had placed the Aude department on orange alert for “high risk” of fire for the day on Saturday.
“The heat wave that affected the country from June 19 to July 4 accentuated the dryness of the soil and weakened the vegetation”, with, after spring rains, “the development of many herbaceous herbaceous people who have dried up after a month of June historically very hot and dry”, had underlined the weather services.
In addition, a wind at 70 km/h, “fairly sustained and constant”, blew at the end of the afternoon, according to the prefecture, but it seemed to calm down at the end of the day.
Three firefighters were poisoned by the smoke and taken care of.
The disaster was very difficult to access due to the dense traffic on the roads, where many Dutch, Luxembourg, Swiss, Germans, in particular, remained blocked in traffic jams. The prefecture noted 15 km of traffic jams at the end of the day on the A9 whose outings at Sigean were not recommended.
uri
Many were also those who were waiting for a calm outside or aboard the motorhome on an A9 motorway rest area, while the Canadair continued to go back and forth above their heads.
This fire occurs less than a month after the Aude department was affected by a large fire, which had traveled 2,100 hectares near Narbonne. He had mobilized 1,000 firefighters, who had fought against the flames throughout the night of July 7 to 8.
Since the start of the summer of violent fires have marked the south of France, including one in Marseille, which has traveled 750 hectares and hit northern Marseille destroying or damaging many houses.