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 on Sunday.
The “extreme” climatic conditions will put the firefighters “under tension” to protect the fire zone 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 are setting 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 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 is no longer progressing but still burns – recalled Colonel Christophe Magny on Saturday morning, 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, 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 which it almost reached on Wednesday.
1400 firefighters on site
Helped with two military detachments, some 1,400 firefighters from all over France will crisscross 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. The accommodation solutions are in place in connection with the municipalities, ”added the prefect of Aude Christian Pouget.
On Saturday, four occasions of fire did not require the intervention of the airlines.
“National Solidarity”
The commander welcomed “the formidable national solidarity momentum since the start of the crisis”. After leaving their accommodation in the precipitation on Tuesday, the last people evacuated were authorized on Friday evening to return to the 16 villages impacted by the fire, the most important for half a century on the French Mediterranean arc.
Thirty-six houses were destroyed, others damaged, and more than twenty agricultural hangars burned, out of the 3000 bundles which were defended by the firefighters, underlined Amélie Trioux, director of cabinet of the prefect of Aude. Electricity has been restored everywhere, but three municipalities remain deprived of telephone network.
A woman died in her house, while a resident was seriously burned. Four other people were slightly injured. In the ranks of firefighters, 19 were injured, one of which has undergone a head trauma.
“All biodiversity in the ground has burned”
Leaving on Tuesday around 4:00 p.m., the fire traveled 16,000 hectares of vegetation, 13,000 of which burned, according to civil security. At the heart of the forests crossed by fire, biodiversity has been considerably affected. “Insects, amphibians, reptiles, micro-mammals have disappeared, all the biodiversity in the ground has burned, only those who run quickly and feel smoke, deer and wild boars, were able to save themselves. The scar will be sustainable, ”said Stéphane Villarubias, director of the National Forest Office (ONF) in the region.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the fire started on the side of a road.
