The weekend will not have been easy for the firefighters, mobilized on three major fires this Sunday in the south of France.
A seriously injured in the Gard
In the Gard, a major fire had destroyed 360 ha of pine forest this Sunday evening according to a report established at 7 p.m. 500 firefighters and five water bomber planes were still fighting to try to contain the flames of this fire that started in the Aubais sector (between Montpellier and Nîmes) around 3 p.m. Several preventive evacuations were carried out.
Four firefighters were injured following a reversal of the flames by the wind which partially destroyed their vehicle. One of them, seriously burned, was transported in serious condition to the Montpellier University Hospital. The other three, more lightly injured, were victims of a “heat stroke”.
500 firefighters mobilized north of Marseille
A few kilometers away, at Pennes-Mirabeau, north of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), another outbreak of fire required the intervention of around 500 firefighters, a water bomber helicopter as well as a Civil Security Dash-8 aircraft. The fire was set shortly before 10 p.m. but the A7 motorway was still closed.
The fire would have started accidentally from a broken down vehicle parked on the hard shoulder of the highway around 4 p.m. according to La Provence. No material damage and no casualties were to be deplored, but 35 hectares had nevertheless gone up in smoke this Sunday evening.
Concern in the Landes
Further west, a hundred firefighters also fought against flames, at the level of the town of Mano (Landes), located about thirty kilometers from Landiras, according to information from France bleu. At least two fire starts were reported in the late afternoon and the fire had ravaged a hundred hectares of pines around 9 p.m.
As a precaution, fifteen houses were evacuated and human reinforcements (160 additional firefighters) and materials (a Dash plane and a water bomber helicopter) were mobilized.
While the south of France will be affected by a new heatwave episode this week, several departments have taken precautions to avoid multiplying these fire starts.
The Gironde prefecture has thus announced that the department will once again be placed on red alert for a risk of fires, prohibiting the circulation of people and vehicles in the forest between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. Access to the forests will also be strictly prohibited. in the Vaucluse, and in 11 of the 25 massifs of the Bouches-du-Rhône.