Some 400 firefighters were mobilized in the Aude in the night of Wednesday to Thursday to fight against a fire having destroyed about 500 hectares of pine forests and which continued to progress Thursday towards 1 o'clock in the morning, without threatening houses, indicate firemen. The destroyed area is of the order of 500 hectares, but "it is approximate", said the commander Philippe Fabre, head of the operational group of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of Aude (SDIS).
The fire, which started Wednesday around 16 hours southeast of Carcassonne, in the municipality of Montirat, did not make any casualties according to firefighters. It was not circumscribed Thursday but did not threaten any hamlet or house in the axis of its spread, according to the commander Fabre. The fire broke out on Wednesday for an unknown reason on a terrain covered with pine forests and low vegetation, an area classified at risk "severe" because of the drought. "This fire is complicated because we are on hard to reach areas, very inaccessible, there are no practicable tracks," said Aude Laybourne, the director of Aude Laybourne's cabinet.
Gusts up to 60 km / h Thursday
On Wednesday, air assets - four Canadair and two Dash aircraft water bombers according to the prefecture - were mobilized. But the night interrupted their rotations. "The challenge for the coming hours will be to position men on strategic points" to try to cut fires and "that when air assets can again intervene, there will be only scattered hot spots ", said Commander Fabre. The devices should take off as soon as the day breaks. In the night, "we will also drown the edges of the fire" to avoid any recovery, added the commander. "What is worrying is the wind that should strengthen Thursday," said Aude Laybourne. It blew on the relief between 30 and 40 km / h, but the gusts could reach 60 km / h Thursday according to the director of cabinet.
Wednesday in the day, isolated homes, less than a dozen according to Major Fabre, were secured and protected by firefighters. Their inhabitants were confined in buildings, shutters and windows closed. "These are sheep-type dwellings or isolated houses," the commander said Wednesday evening. No evacuation was ordered in the area, according to the director of cabinet of the prefect of Aude.
In total, some 400 men were mobilized after the arrival of reinforcements from two columns of firefighters from Aix-en-Provence and Nimes, or about 120 men. In the Occitanie region, another fire broke out in the Hérault department. Wednesday night, some 50 ha of pine forests had burned, no home was threatened, according to Codis 34. The fire is located in Forty, in the west of the department.