Fire in the Pyrénées-Orientales: the fire is fixed, but there is a significant risk of it starting again

The fire that broke out in the massif of Aspres Thursday, is now fixed. On the other hand, the SDIS 66 calls for vigilance, due to strong winds and residual fires that could cause new outbreaks of fire.

On Thursday, September 12, at around 2:30 p.m., a vegetation fire broke out in the Aspres massif (Pyrenees Orientales), affecting the municipalities of Castelnou and Camellas. In total, 400 hectares were engulfed in flames and 280 burned. Since midnight, the fire has been contained, as indicated by the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service 66 (SDIS). Up to 800 firefighters have been deployed mobilized for this operation and 500 firefighters remained on the ground during the night to monitor and secure the scene. Five firefighters were slightly injured. Two were “hospitalized” respectively for a broken nose and a broken neck. the cheekbone, and three others are more lightly injured, having suffered dust inhalation in the eyes or smoke inhalation,” Le Parisien specifies.

Unfavorable weather: “we call on” the greatest vigilance"

This Friday morning, at 7:30 a.m., three water-bombing helicopters were deployed, “one HBE from SDIS 66 and two Condors from Civil Security”, the SDIS 66 specified. In addition, “from 2 p.m., an additional helicopter from SDIS 66 will reinforce the system”. Now, due to residual outbreaks that may persist in the area and weather conditions that “remain unfavorable (strong winds, drought),” explains the SDIS 66, “we call for the greatest vigilance. “Avoid any activity that could cause a fire and immediately report any outbreak of fire.” It is advisable not to go to affected sites, to avoid closed roads, and to follow the official accounts of the prefecture and the SDIS 66 to stay informed. For the time being, the departmental roads RD48, RD2 and RD58 remain closed.

On the social network X, the prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales wanted to remind people of several instructions to be applied by the inhabitants of the region and potential walkers and holidaymakers present in the surrounding areas. In the Corbières and Roussillon areas, the circulation of motor vehicles, walks, horseback rides, bicycle rides, on unpaved tracks and paths within the massifs concerned are prohibited. Traffic is also prohibited on the RD38 towards Força Réal and the road to Périllos. "Slash-and-burn remains prohibited until September 30, risky work likely to cause sparks, the use of parking spaces approved fires”, are also prohibited to protect the department from fire.

Areas still on fire and a “fairly steep relief”

“We set this fire around midnight and we continued to work hard until 3am to get what was burning quite badly in places,” Colonel Guillaume Brunet, from the Pyrénées-Orientales firefighters, told France Bleu Roussillon. Now, “we are in a phase of treating the edges, drowning and getting the first residues that are still present in large numbers at inside the damaged area. There will still be a lot of hard work all day long at least, because 300 hectares is a large fire perimeter and there are many stumps that continue to burn, these are areas that you have to go and find in a fairly steep terrain and so you have to be very vigilant and have real active monitoring and treatment of hot spots.” he explains.

The Pyrénées-Orientales department is facing a severe drought for the third consecutive year. A constant, all the more so in this Aspres massif, as Colonel Eric Belgioiumno, head of the Pyrénées-Orientales fire brigade, recalls on France Bleu Roussillon: “The drought context has resulted in a very significant decline in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. In some places, particularly in the Aspres, more than 50% of the vegetation has declined. This means that we are faced with à fires that are virulent, that are explosive. We have sometimes seen in places generalized conflagrations".