Un “virulent” fire releasing a large plume of smoke was underway Thursday, July 14 south of Avignon, near Tarascon. By early Friday morning, it had already traveled around 1,000 hectares – and destroyed 320 ha –, mobilizing nearly 1,000 firefighters. The fire started around 4 p.m. from the regional railway line linking Tarascon to Graveson, in the Bouches-du-Rhône.
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. 940 firefighters, many of whom came from neighboring departments, supported by 240 machines, were mobilized for the night. Shortly after 4 a.m. Friday morning, Bouches-du-Rhône firefighters said the fire had been fixed. He did not, according to the emergency services, cause any injuries. For the moment, no dwelling has been affected and the firefighters, who “worked tirelessly” to protect the abbey of Frigolet, did not count any injuries.
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The circulation of TER trains was interrupted between Avignon and Tarascon towards Nîmes. The fire would have already covered 720 hectares of vegetation, a figure which quickly swelled, but the very dense plume of smoke prevented a more precise assessment from the firefighters. The smoke and ashes thus reached Avignon, where the theater festival is in full swing.
Gard and Gironde also affected in recent days
Last week, 650 hectares of forest had burned in neighboring Gard and since Tuesday relief workers have been fighting two very large forest fires in Gironde. The situation is “still unfavorable” in Gironde where firefighters have been dealing with two forest fires since Tuesday which have ravaged at least 7,300 hectares in La Teste-de-Buch and Landiras where nearly 500 people were evacuated overnight. In the Landiras sector, the evacuation concerns 480 people from three villages (Origne, Balizac and Louchats), who were received in rooms.
Since Tuesday, 4,200 hectares have burned in this sparsely populated area, about forty kilometers south of Bordeaux. On the other front, in La Teste-de-Buch, some 3,100 hectares of pines went up in smoke in this forest backed by the Pilat dune. Since Tuesday, 10,000 people have been evacuated from campsites near the Dune du Pilat and the town and military base of Cazaux. On Thursday, “forest fire” vigilance went up a notch in Gironde, which went red (scale 4/5), a measure imitated in the neighboring department of Landes since Friday morning.