Montpellier (AFP) – Occitanie remains at risk of flames, fanned by strong winds on Monday, with 3,000 holidaymakers evacuated from a campsite in Canet-en-Roussillon (Pyrénées-Orientales), while the fire is settling in the Hérault, where the fire Frontignan was settled after ravaging 350 hectares.
3,000 people were evacuated during the night from Sunday to Monday from a campsite in Canet-en-Roussillon, threatened by a fire and and finally and finally “under control” by firefighters, according to a press release from the services emergency monday.
The fire, with winds blowing at 80 km/h, which started around 2:00 am, destroyed a mobile home: “Five other people were affected as well as a caravan”, specifies the press release, which adding that the tourists were welcome in the town building.
In Frontignan, a town with 24,000 inhabitants south-west of Montpellier, the fire that started on Sunday afternoon was “settled” by firefighters during the night, after destroying around 350 hectares of pine forest, without any injuries, we learned on Monday morning from the firefighters.
“The firewas put on for two and a half hours and we are still working on it because we have many hot spots and big risks of restarting,” he told AFP, shortly after sunrise. , said Lieutenant-General Jérôme Bonnafoux, spokesman for the Hérault firefighters.
Of the 600 firefighters deployed on the ground on Sunday, mainly from Hérault but with reinforcements from Bouches-du-Rhône (80 firefighters and 80 marine firefighters from Marseille), “there are 300 to 350 are still on the move and will remain so throughout the day,” said Mr. Bonnafoux.
– Darmanin was expected in Frontignan –
An aerial survey will allow you to clarify the extent of the burned surface and decide if planes need to engage again, he said.
Sunday afternoon, 220 firefighters from Hérault also intervened for a fire has now burned 60 hectares of pine forest (compared to 40 at 12:15 am) in Nissan-les- Ensérunes, near Béziers, the prefecture also said it is coming forward on Monday , the chief executive of Hérault pointed out
On Sunday, four Dash planes, two Beech planes, five Canadairs, a Dragon helicopter and a water bomber helicopter went into action in Frontignan, making more than 150 drops in total according to the prefecture.
The fire started in the town of Gigean around 3:00 p.m., 150 meters from the A9 motorway, and then went towards the Gardiole massif.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is expected in Frontignan late this morning.
“The provisional report at this time does not describe any injuries,” the Hérault prefecture said shortly before midnight, specifying that “an empty home was destroyed as well as several sheds” and that “semi- to protect one’s home.
In total, about fifteen people who were evacuated or left their homes were gathered in a gymnasium in the town of Frontignan,” the prefecture also said.
According to the prefect François-Xavier Lauch, who came to Frontignan on Sunday, this fire is “the biggest of the season in the department” of Hérault, and it was difficult to manage because of the many ” increase fire”.
It is even one of the most important fires this year in France, after the 600 hectares that burned in the Var in June, in Vidauban.
The town of Frontignan launched its town protection plan on Sunday, from 6:05 p.m.
2024-08-19 07:23:58
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