"We have fires almost every day": the fight against the historic fire in Aude continues

The Aude region is seeing no respite. The gigantic fire ravaging the region —the largest in France in nearly fifty years—will not be extinguished for several days. It will be nearly a month since the flames first appeared. As a further sign of the coming decades, during which the consequences of climate change could continue to accelerate, the fire is being kept alive by high temperatures.

Firefighters remain on high alert for the coming days, as the east of the department was at "extreme risk" of fire on Sunday, August 17. This was the first time since 2016, "which clearly shows the seriousness of the situation and the very difficult weather conditions we are facing," Lucie Roesh, secretary general of the prefecture, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Corbières region, affected by the exceptional fire in Ribaute, and the Narbonne coastline, themselves classified as under extreme alert on Sunday, remain under high vigilance by firefighters for the coming days. The fire, which has covered 16,000 hectares, has been flaring up again for several days.

One of them "is being dealt with," the Aude firefighters announced to AFP, stressing that two water bombing helicopters were tackling the resumption of the fire. For the fire that started between the towns of Ribaute and Lagrasse on Tuesday, August 5, "to be classified as extinguished," it will take "several days" and it "is far from being extinguished, since we have resumptions almost every day," even if, for the moment, they "are not significant," they detail.

Despite the very high level of risk, combined with the very heavy traffic flow on the coast due to the August 15th bridge, no major fires have affected the department. The 1,200 firefighters who have been mobilized will most likely be maintained in the coming days, according to Lucie Roesh. Due to the orange heatwave alert, the "very dry" weather and the wind expected in the department on Monday, "the mobilization will have to continue," she adds.

While the Aude was classified on orange alert for high fire risk on Monday by the Météo des forêts, the east of the department, affected by five fires since the beginning of summer and classified as red by the National Forestry Office (ONF), is still subject to "a very severe risk, which will nevertheless call for great vigilance" , the firefighters emphasize. "Given the climatic conditions" , the latter are already predicting "a risk of a major fire which could last until the end of September" .