The fire that ravaged the Corbières massif cannot be under control before Sunday evening

And thank you for your question. Moreover, A “fixed” fire means that it no longer advances, it is the first step for firefighters. Therefore, We then speak of “control” when the fire is circumscribed and the most important flames are extinguished. Meanwhile, Fire then enters a phase of decline. Therefore, it is under control, without being extinguished (see the lexicon of decoders to understand the fight against fires).

Then, even when the flames are extinguished, there remains a risk of recovery for several days. Furthermore, This is what Anthony Collin. fire specialist at the University of Lorraine, explains this morning in an interview with the France-Presse agency: “When you have a vegetation fire, you will mainly have the small fire ravaged corbières massif cannot elements constituting the vegetation that will burn. This is what releases the heat and which contributes to the fire. And among these elements. you have trunks, large branches, which have not contributed too much to the fire but heated in contact and have accumulated a lot of heat ”he explains.

“The risk of putting out the flames. going away is that these branches can again release their heat to the twigs and restart the fire”details this researcher, who studies the propagation of fires on the surface and in the soils. “These are braid fires, like coal”like the one we use in barbecues. “It is a combustion that goes without flames, it can last days and days, he explains. If we do not really come to extinguish him. either by suffocation by depriving him of oxygen, or by cooling it with water, we have a risk fire ravaged corbières massif cannot of recovery. »»

To identify these risks. firefighters can monitor fumarolles emanating from the soil, which betray a “Hot stitch” where the fire may resume. They can also use thermal cameras, some of which are driven by drones. This will allow“Identify for example a charred trunk. but which will be hot, for example 80- 100 degrees, and which could be the trigger for a new fire”.