High temperatures, strong winds and historic drought: the conditions are conducive to fire outbreaks. A fire destroyed 200 hectares of pine forest in the Gard in the town of Aubais, south of Nîmes, on Sunday July 31. This caused a large plume of smoke which required the partial closure of the A9 motorway, according to the firefighters and the prefecture.
“Four firefighters are injured”announced the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, in a tweet about the fire which broke out around 3 p.m. in Aubais, along departmental road 12. One of them, “seriously injured”was evacuated to the Montpellier hospital center for burns, the three others, more slightly injured, were victims of a “heat stroke” following a reversal of the flames by the wind which partly destroyed their vehicle, specified to Agence France-Presse (AFP) colonel Agrinier, who coordinates the operations on the spot.
A violent fire broke out in Aubais, in the Gard. Significant human and air resources are mobilized. What… https://t.co/E0VCbPQT1b
Fanned by the mistral and the tramontane, whose gusts blow at 60 kilometers per hour on dry ground, the fire progresses from 2.5 to 3 kilometers per hour, explained to AFP the commander William Borelly, in charge of communication at the Gard departmental fire and rescue service.
Five planes and a water bomber helicopter are in action. Reinforcements of firefighters from neighboring departments are also expected to help the 170 firefighters already mobilized. Some preventive evacuations in districts of Aubais were in progress and a multipurpose hall was opened in the village to accommodate these inhabitants, specified the prefecture and the firefighters to AFP.
Smoke Release
As a security measure, the A9, which serves Spain in particular, has been closed in both directions to traffic for about ten kilometers between Lunel and Gallargues, announced the motorway company Vinci. “The fire does not impact the highway, but a significant release of smoke poses a risk to traffic”specifies Vinci, which has implemented traffic management measures on the A9 and the A54.
As a result, the A709 urban motorway has also been closed to traffic in both directions between Montpellier south (exit no. 30) and Montpellier west (no. 31), as a safety measure, adds the motorway company. “There are currently 3 kilometers of traffic jam towards Spain and 4 kilometers of traffic jam towards Lyon”also made known Vinci.
Several large fires
In anticipation of a new episode of heat wave, Météo-France placed five departments under orange vigilance on Sunday in the south of France. The Gard is among them, with the Ardèche, the Drôme, the Pyrénées-Orientales and the Vaucluse, where the temperatures were already high on Sunday afternoon.
These departments should cross a “new heatwave episode, the intensity and duration of which will be less than those of the previous episode”, however, specifies Météo-France. The ten other departments in the south-eastern quarter of France have been placed on yellow alert. The Gard was also placed on Saturday, for the first time this season, in level “extreme danger” for the forest fire risk in the Gard Rhône area.
France has already been hit by several large fires since the start of the summer. Nearly 21,000 hectares were ravaged in Gironde while 1,600 hectares burned in a fire south of Avignon, in Provence, in mid-July. In the neighboring department of Hérault, a fire which broke out on Tuesday, about twenty kilometers from Montpellier, destroyed 800 hectares of vegetation, while 1,200 hectares were destroyed in Ardèche the same week.