“I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT ALL THIS CAN BE SPONTANEOUS,” related Colonel Christopher Risdorfer, the Director of County Fire and Rescue Herault in France. Monday afternoon around 1 pm the first of several fires started in the brush and scrub land in and around Herault, Meze and Fontanes. With a strong wind blowing one of the fires raced through 3,000 hectares in a brief time and brought five Canadair firefighting planes to the scene to assist.
Literally hundreds of firefighters were brought in to tackle the many fires threatening the communities. The town of Meze has been most affected with a house burned down and the inhabitants evacuated in haste.
Paris Match
“Five Canadair aircraft, two trackers and a Dash resumed aerial rotations. It seems that the main fire was contained around the village of Saint-Bauzille Montmel, located about ten kilometers north of Montpellier, “said Peter Maitrot, chief of staff of the prefect.
AFP
One of the main highways, the A9 was shut down for 16 hours because of the dangers along the freeway from the fires as seen in the later moments of this video:
The remaining fire is now contained and hopes are to continue it as the strong, sudden wind gusts are capable of moving the fire 300 meters along in seconds.
Paris Match has a recent REPORT.
Le JDD has MORE.
Update: All fires are reported to be out now.
These were the largest fires recorded this summer in the Southeast. In total, nearly 3,000 hectares of vegetation have gone up in smoke since Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning, the fire that destroyed some 2,800 hectares in the single department of Herault was contained on Tuesday morning. A dozen homes have been destroyed, however, including four in the village of Guzargues.
The fire that started Monday afternoon north of Montpellier, near Fontanes, “is fixed and will not progress,” said Colonel Christopher Risdorfer, the commander of firefighters in Herault. Firefighters, however, remain “very, very careful because we are not immune to a takeover. The wind picked up in the zone. It was weak in the early hours but it has strengthened. ”
The 900 firefighters from departments in reinforcing of Languedoc-Roussillon, PACA region and even the Auvergne, fought the flames all night to contain the blaze on three fronts – north, west and south-east – and prevent its spread to the capital of the Hérault, distant ten miles. At dawn, four Canadair Dash resumed their rotation that was interrupted by nightfall.
AFP
Another fire that started around 16:30 between Monday and Meze Villeveyrac, south-west of Montpelier, also destroyed 600 hectares of vegetation in the same department. It jumped over the A9 highway which was temporarily closed. The fire then hit the outskirts of Meze, where homes have been evacuated. According to the first deputy of the city, Yves Pietrasanta, a restaurant and a wine factory burned in the fire, which reached the entrance to an industrial park and failed to reach a new police station that had been evacuated. The fire was contained around 21:30.
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