A “virulent” fire releasing a large plume of smoke was underway Thursday south of Avignon, towards Tarascon. At 9:30 p.m., the fire, made up of three separate outbreaks, had covered 1,000 ha, of which 300 were destroyed, according to the authorities. It was still not under control at nightfall, despite the mobilization of 940 firefighters, supported by 240 machines.
The fire started around 4 p.m. during the passage of a train connecting Tarascon to Graveson, in the Bouches-du-Rhône‚ “generating sparks and igniting the dry vegetation on both sides of the rails”, a explained the prefecture in a press release. Thanks to a wind present in the north of the department and scorching temperatures, the fire “jumped” on the Montagnette massif, a small limestone massif covered two-thirds with Aleppo pines located south of Avignon.
Around 9:30 p.m. the fire was still not fixed and continued to evolve in the heart of the massif. “The effects of slope, relief and difficult access complicate the action of firefighters,” they said. No dwelling had been affected and the firefighters, who “worked tirelessly” to protect the abbey of Frigolet, did not count any injuries.
TER circulation interrupted
Four municipalities – Tarascon, Barbentane, Graveson and Boulbon – have made rooms available for possible evacuees. The inhabitants of certain neighborhoods were indeed called upon to leave the premises, even if for most inhabitants “confinement is the rule, evacuation the exception”, recalled the town hall of Barbentane on its Facebook page.
The circulation of TER trains was disrupted, with affected installations, but the SNCF was able to divert its TER trains on bypass routes between Avignon and Tarascon, and Avignon and Nîmes.
A little earlier in the evening, the firefighters had put forward the figure of 720 ha covered, while specifying that their assessment was made complicated by the very dense plume of smoke from the fire. In an apocalyptic sky, smoke and ashes thus reached Avignon, where the theater festival is in full swing.
Last week, 650 ha of forest had burned in neighboring Gard, and since Tuesday relief workers have been fighting two very large forest fires in Gironde, with already 5,300 ha devastated.