Forest lights: very high danger in several departments this weekend, the south of France on alert

• The risk of forest fires remains very high in several departments this Saturday, August 15.
• Drôme, Vaucluse and Aude are particularly monitored, while temperatures are still scorching.

On this weekend of August 15, firefighters are on the alert in many departments in the south of France. In question, a significant risk of forest fires. In its forest weather, Météo-France is particularly monitoring six departments: The Pyrénées-Orientales, AudeHérault, Gard, Bouches-du-Rhône and the Vaucluse.

The east of the Aude department, in particular, which includes the corbières affected by the gigantic fire from August 5, will be in “extreme risk of forest fires” on Sunday, a first in the department since 2016, according to the prefecture and the Aude firefighters. “Sunday will be the most tense day. Wind will be established, we go into extreme risk in certain areas”informed AFP Colonel Michael Sabot, deputy departmental director of the Aude firefighters.

14 departments are also classified at high level for Sunday. For Monday, this figure will come back down to 9.

Météo-France justifies this risk by the Mistral and the Tramontane, which risk blowing while temperatures will locally exceed 40 ° C. Conditions that can promote fire starts, whether of criminal or accidental origin, while the vegetation is already extremely dry in the southern half of France.

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Since the start of the summer, several magnitude fires have ravaged thousands of hectares in France. The most important thing was triggered in Aude on August 5. Now under control, he has traveled 16,000 hectares and is still not extinguished. The prefecture of the department told AFP on Friday that a “Very high level of vigilance” will be on this weekend. A workforce of 270 firefighters is engaged “In surveillance missions”while 430 additional firefighters can be recalled in the event of reactivation or new fire, detailed the secretary general of the Lucie Roesch prefecture.

Many forest massifs are also prohibited from access in the coming days, especially in Vaucluse where only Mont Ventoux remains accessible. The prefecture recalls that 9 out of 10 fires are of human origin and can therefore be avoided.