Near Narbonne, a fire spreads across 1,000 hectares, leading to the closure of the A9 motorway.

A massive fire swept through 1,000 hectares of vegetation on Monday, July 7, near Narbonne (Aude), and led to the closure of the A9 motorway, while residents of houses located in areas close to the fire were urged to stay indoors.

"The order is to stay indoors. As long as there is no firefighter at your door to tell you that you have to leave, I know it's scary, but the best solution is to stay indoors," insisted the prefect's chief of staff, Amélie Trioux. Despite the rapid intervention of 400 firefighters and around ten aircraft, including four Canadair water bombers, the fire "is progressing towards [the neighbouring towns of Narbonne] Bages and Peyriac-de-Mer" , towards the south-east, ^Ms Trioux also specified.

An Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer saw flames several dozen meters high and a thick cloud of black smoke rising from the pine forests engulfed by the fire, despite the action of water bombers.

Fanned by a strong wind, the fire is spreading through vegetation dried out by the heatwave. The Aude department was placed on red fire alert on Monday, along with the Var and Bouches-du-Rhône departments.

Under unknown circumstances, the fire started around 3 p.m. in a vineyard near the D613 departmental road in the Corbières massif.

The seaside resort of Port-la-Nouvelle, around twenty kilometers away, is without electricity because high-voltage lines, threatened by the flames, have been cut "to facilitate the action of the firefighters," added the prefecture.

In the commune of Bages, which borders the A9 motorway, residents of the hamlet of Prat-de-Cest evacuated their homes for fear of flames. The motorway that connects France to Spain along the Mediterranean Sea was closed in both directions "at the request of the prefecture" at the junction with the A61, Vinci Autoroutes told AFP, which urged people to "avoid the area at all costs," and nearby rest areas were evacuated. Two departmental roads had been closed earlier in the afternoon, according to the prefecture.

This region had already been affected by flames about ten days ago, when several fires started consuming 400 hectares in the neighboring town of Bizanet, after a merchant's vehicle carrying a poorly extinguished barbecue on his trailer. Also in Aude, a new fire covered 430 hectares on Saturday and Sunday in Douzens, started when a car traveling on the A61 between Toulouse and Narbonne stopped on the hard shoulder before catching fire.

"Aude, like all Mediterranean departments, is very vulnerable to the risk of fire. The vegetation is drying out year after year," said Laurent Noé, head of communications for Vinci Autoroute Languedoc-Roussillon.