Heatwave: Six departments on red alert for fires on Sunday
The heatwave continues. And as the days go by, the drought worsens and the risk of fires grows. After nine days of a heatwave affecting all of France and the Iberian Peninsula, Météo France announced on its website this Saturday evening that six departments in the south of the country will remain on red alert or will move to red alert on Sunday, August 17. These include the Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Hérault, Gard, Vaucluse, and Bouches-du-Rhône. The winds expected to blow in these departments tomorrow have authorities fearing an increased risk and fires that could spread very quickly.
This weekend, weather conditions are increasing the risk of fires in the South: high temperatures, very dry atmosphere, tramontane and mistral winds.
🔴 #ForestWeather : On Saturday, Aude, Vaucluse & Drôme are particularly affected, with a very high fire danger. pic.twitter.com/BPsIGzkOts
Concrete consequence: in Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, access to all forest areas is prohibited, announces Ici Provence . And firefighters are massively mobilized for prevention.
This stage corresponds to a "very high danger" of fires with "meteorological conditions [which] make the risk of the start and spread of forest and vegetation fires very high compared to summer norms" . This is Météo France's highest alert level for fires.
The organization points out that "nine out of ten fires are of human origin and mainly the result of carelessness" , often due to a cigarette not properly extinguished, a barbecue or work carried out too close to vegetation.
Libération
