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A fire broke out on Tuesday August 5 in Aude. It is visible for miles around and has now traveled more than 13,000 hectares. How to explain such a speed of propagation of flames? Response elements
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A thick cloud of smoke overlooks the beaches of Collioure (Pyrénées-Orientales) and homes in Barcarès, yet located a hundred kilometers from the fire which broke out on Tuesday August 5 in the neighboring department in Ribaute (Aude).
On a satellite card, you can see the magnitude of the fire, the most important since the start of the summer. Because this time, the fire progressed very quickly. At 8 p.m., the flames had already traveled nearly 2,400 hectares. Three hours later, the figure had tripled: 7,000 hectares. Wednesday August 6 in the morning, 13,000 hectares have already gone up in smoke. In question, a combination of conditions extremely favorable to rapid spread of fire.
“At the time of the start of the fire, temperatures were around 34 degrees in the corbières. We had a humidity level less than 25 %, and a tramontane that was blowing between 60 and 70 km per hour”explains Jérôme Cerisier, provisionist Weather Solutions.
Another factor: the episodes of drought that have multiplied in the department for several years. The shrubs, like the pines, are highly flammable. So that Tuesday, August 5, the firefighters had to fight against a fire progressing at more than five km/h, a speed rarely affected, equivalent to that of a fast walk. “Five km/h is enormous. Today, propagation speeds, as well as the fact that we are on very arid floors, do not allow us to properly counter the loss”regrets commander Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for the National Federation of French firefighters.
In France, since the start of the year, nearly 24,000 hectares of forest and vegetation have burned. Fire in Aude alone represents half of this assessment.