Here is what we know about this fire that made one dead and 23 injured, and its unprecedented character:
Its propagation speed
The fire left around 4:15 p.m. Tuesday in the town of Ribaute, about forty kilometers equidistant between Narbonne and Carcassonne. The firefighters intervened in less than seven minutes and mobilized almost all of the French air system which immediately carried out rotations in the Audois sky until nightfall.
Despite a “colossal” device of more than 2,000 firefighters, according to the prefecture, the Corbières massif has ignited “at Grande Galop”, reports Bruno Zubieta, elected from Villesèque-des-Corbières: the area traveled by fire increased from 50 to 4,000 hectares in five hours, to reach 17,000 hectares in just more than 48 hours.
Météo-France had placed the Aude in red vigilance for the “very high” risk of fires.
Under the combined effect of the tramontane, a dry and warm wind, blowing in gusts at 50 km/h, of the dryness of the vegetation, whose humidity rate was less than 30 %, and temperatures above 30 degrees, the fire has reached “a speed of spread of 1,000 hectares per hour”, according to colonel Christophe Magny, head of the fire and help of Aude.
Until the wind calms down and turned, Wednesday afternoon, the flames moved to “incredible” speed from 5 to 6 km/h, explains the agroclimatologist Serge Zaka.
His aggravating topography
Made up of mountains and mountains, the Corbières massif, a transition between the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, has a difficult steep relief for firefighters.
According to expert Serge Zaka, this type of relief can create a “chimney effect”, hot air rises quickly, creating “a vertical air current which accelerates combustion and sucks the flames up”, promoting their climb on the ridges where they are fueled by the wind. It creates “earlier inflammation” and a “faster warm-up” of plants, he says, especially since the conifers and the garrigue of the Corbières are already a powerful natural fuel.
Its impact on the local population
On the first day, a 65 -year -old woman was found dead in her house whom she had refused to leave. In total, the prefecture counted 23 injured on Friday: five hospitalized inhabitants, including a seriously burned, and 18 firefighters, including one in serious condition.
The France-Spain highway was closed overnight. At least 2,000 people were evacuated from the villages disaster victims on the first day of the fire, most could not regain their home until Friday. Up to 5,000 households have been deprived of electricity due to burnt or collapsed pylons and posts.
In this wine region, the prefect of Aude Christian Pouget evaluated “800 to 900 hectares” the lost vineyards. Some 80 % of the vines of three wine villages “are completely or partially burned”, generating huge losses for the winemakers, according to the director of the cooperative cellar of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.
An extraordinary fire
“Catastrophe of unprecedented magnitude”, according to Prime Minister François Bayrou, the fire has been the worst for at least 50 years in the French Mediterranean, according to the government’s Forest Fire Database in France (BDIFF) which since 1973 lists the total area traveled by flames.
Often, large fires are additions to several fires. But in the Aude, only one and the same start of fire burned 13,000 hectares, according to civil security. “It’s more than the town of Paris,” said Colonel Magny.
Fixed Thursday around 8 p.m., it is also the biggest fire in the summer of 2025 at this stage, in France.
At the end of July, half the summer season and before it was triggered, civil security had counted more than 15,000 hectares burned on national territory for 9,000 fire departures, mainly on the Mediterranean coast.
As for its origin …
According to the first elements of the investigation led by the gendarmerie, the fire started on the side of the departmental road 212 lined with dry herbs and brush, which links Ribaute to Lagrasse, in the heart of the Corbières.