With its still smoking ashes in places, the fire of exceptional magnitude, which ravaged the Corbières massif, in the south of France, concerned the authorities on Saturday evening, due to the strong gusts of wind and the scorching temperatures expected this Sunday.
The “extreme” climatic conditions will put the firefighters under tension to protect the fire area but also the entire Department of Aude, said in front of the press Commander Michael Sabot, deputy departmental director of the fire and rescue service.
“We set up devices (…) as close as possible to the massifs to be able to reduce intervention times and be able to ensure an efficient and rapid aeroterrestrial attack to be able to avoid having a second catastrophic fire,” he said, evoking other Aude sectors in very severe risk.
Météo-France has placed the Aude under orange heat wave all weekend, with temperatures provided between 38 and 40 ° C.
– fixed, but not controlled –
In addition, the tramontane, a dry and warm wind, will return in gusts up to 55 km/h on the land, towards the Mediterranean coast, recreating the conditions for the departure of the fire, he added, specifying that the humidity would also be very low, of the order of 20%.
“The fire is fixed but uncontrolled” – it does not progress anymore but still burns – recalled, Saturday morning, Colonel Christophe Magny, who directs the operations. “Until Sunday evening the fire will not be under control,” he warned, adding that it would not be “extinguished for several weeks”.
In vegetation blackened by the flames, the firefighters continue, in overwhelming heat, to fight against fire. The fire soldiers, reservoirs on their backs, spray with a lance the earth of ashes, noted an AFP journalist.
– On the alert –
On the alert, they monitor and secure the 90 kilometers of borders to “prevent the fire from the front”, in the closest part of the Mediterranean coast and the highway leading to Spain that it almost reached on Wednesday.
Helped with two military detachments, some 1,400 firefighters from all over France will quoted the villages at the front of the fire, with the protection of people for priority, “added Commander Sabot.
Thanks to bulldozers, 10 km of slopes were traced to open new access and facilitate the intervention of firefighters in steep areas, where the vegetation is dense.
“The fight continues, the firefighters are still working on fire covers (…) The victims were able to return to their home. Accommodation solutions are in place in connection with the municipalities,” said the prefect of Aude Christian Pouget.
