2023-04-16 23:34:00
EAbout 930 hectares of vegetation were covered on Sunday in the Pyrénées-Orientales by the first big fire of the year 2023 in France, in this department very affected by drought, according to the prefecture.
“The fire covered more than 930 hectares and crossed the border with Spain,” said the prefecture in a press release released in the evening.
The 300 people who had been evacuated in the afternoon “have mostly been able to return to their homes”, she said, adding: “The fire is not yet fixed but the situation has stabilized from the point of for the protection of people and property”.
“I will go there early tomorrow morning (Monday), to take stock of the situation, to support the 500 firefighters and rescuers mobilized and the Pyrenees hard hit”, tweeted Sunday afternoon Gérald Darmanin who must be present. on site from 8:30 a.m.
“Operations will continue tonight and it is to be expected that the complete resorption of the fire will take several days,” said the prefecture. evoking four houses “impacted” by the fire, without further details.
A resident of the Soulane district in Cerbère, Luigi told the local daily l’Indépendant of the fire: “We said to ourselves + well the firefighters are there, there is no problem +. Then, we realized that very quickly we had like fog, thick smoke around the house. It was starting to become more and more important”.
“And at 1:00 p.m., we couldn’t breathe too much, it was a bit asphyxiating and we realized that the flames were very close to the house, 20-30 meters away. So we took the little one and we left. We ended up here, at the bottom of the village,” he added.
Fanned by a strong wind
The fire broke out in the morning between the two municipalities of Cerbère and Banyuls-sur-Mer and 500 firefighters from the Pyrénées-Orientales, as well as several other departments, were mobilized in the afternoon to try to slow its progress.
In the evening there were still 460 mobilized and they “will be further reinforced in the coming hours”, according to the prefecture.
The fire was fanned by a strong Tramontane. Six water bomber planes, including four Canadair and two Dash, have also been deployed, according to another tweet from Mr. Darmanin.
But, said the prefecture, “the Canadairs could not drop because of the violence of the wind (more than 80 km / h with gusts of 120 km / h in the reliefs)”.
It is to date the largest fire of the year 2023, which broke out in a department particularly affected by the lack of precipitation and the dryness of the soil.
“The reconstitution of water stocks, crucial in winter, has (…) not taken place and the situation of the water tables continues to deteriorate”, had recently underlined the prefecture.
In a press release, it specified that “this phenomenon, which started in June 2022, is still ongoing, is the longest and most intense since the start of soil moisture monitoring by Météo-France in 1959”.
The drought in the Pyrénées-Orientales, linked to global warming, is already causing restrictions and tensions, with four villages being deprived of drinking water since Friday as farmers fear for their survival in this historically arid early spring.
04/16/2023 23:33:27 – Banyuls-sur-Mer (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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