Fire paralyzes highways for several hours north of Marseille

A violent fire north of Marseille disrupted traffic for several hours on Monday, July 28, causing the closure of the A7 and A51 motorways in both directions and disrupting air traffic in France's second-largest city. The fire, which completely destroyed the buildings of a caravanning company, generating a huge cloud of black smoke, started around 4:40 p.m. at interchange 517, in the towns of Septèmes-les-Vallons and Pennes-Mirabeau, about twenty kilometers north of Marseille.

At 9:30 p.m., the A7 and A51 motorways were "reopened in both directions" and the containment measures were lifted, the Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture specified in its second situation update , specifying that only the access ramp to the A7 via the A51, in the direction of Rognac, remained closed and that the emergency services were still present to "ensure the smooth resumption of traffic" .

A major fire had already started in Pennes-Mirabeau on July 8, after a car caught fire on the A55, further east. The fire then covered 750 hectares of scrubland and pine forests and reached Marseille, devastating around sixty buildings in total in the L'Estaque district. Faced with this new fire, which covered 11 hectares on Monday, 400 firefighters were mobilized, assisted by 100 ground vehicles and significant aerial resources, including four Canadair aircraft, two Dash aircraft, and two water-bombing helicopters, according to the prefecture.

The aim was to prevent the fire from spreading "towards the Massif de l'Étoile," which borders the city of Marseille to the north, and to "protect any homes," the firefighters explained. In addition to the significant disruption to road traffic, Marseille-Provence Airport in Marignane was also affected, with landings suspended for just over an hour, but "traffic has since resumed," the prefecture said.