While the summer season has not yet started, forest fires have already made a return to France. Indeed, a forest fire in the Var massif burned 600 hectares on Tuesday June 11 in the early evening. This is the first big fire in the south of France this year.
The biggest fire of the year to date in France broke out on the afternoon of Tuesday June 11 in a forest in the Var and the residents of four evacuated hamlets were able to return home, firefighters announced. Despite the deployment of around a hundred firefighters, the fire devastated 600 hectares of forest in this massif located in the south of France.
At the end of the evening, the situation appeared to be “much more favorable than what we experienced this afternoon when the fire progressed very quickly and burned 600 hectares in a few hours. There the wind has died down, the temperatures are dropping, the hydrometry is rising,” Colonel Frédéric Gosse, deputy of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (SDIS) of Var, explained to AFPTV. Concerning the origin of the fire, an investigation is in the hands of the gendarmes.
More than 600 firefighters mobilized
The fire, fanned by a violent wind, broke out Tuesday June 11 around 3 p.m. in the town of Vidauban, at departmental road 48, in the hinterland of Saint-Tropez, an area often hit by fires during the summer. While the water bomber planes resumed their rotation on the morning of Wednesday June 12, firefighters on the ground continued to treat the edges of the fire to contain it and prevent its spread.
“Calm night at the fire. The reinforcements have all arrived and the number of personnel on the fire is 600 personnel and 190 machines,” said the Var firefighters in a press release taken up on Wednesday June 12 by AFP. Around 5 p.m., the fire was “fixed”, say the firefighters. “With the weather conditions overnight, the wind dropping and the drop in temperatures, the situation is favorable this morning. However, the weather forecasts announce a return of the wind this afternoon, which constitutes an important point of vigilance” adds the press release.
Several residents evacuated
“The actions to treat the edges are continuing in anticipation of the weather forecast for today,” explains the Var firefighters. Three water bomber planes circled the site Wednesday morning. “They have made 129 drops in total since the fire started.” Numerous reinforcements of firefighters from Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-Maritimes, Vaucluse, Hérault, Gard, Ardèche, Drôme, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Hautes- Alpes, also arrived on site during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
The RD72 is still cut off to traffic between Vidauban and Plan de la Tour, report our colleagues from France 3 Régions. The RD48 is only accessible to local residents. Following this fire, many residents had to leave their homes and their farms. “It started at three o’clock. As the hours passed, the plume of smoke continued to intensify,” testifies Lydia Sawinski, poultry breeder, to France 3 Côte d’Azur.
