A major forest fire in the Var, “several hundred hectares” covered

Published on : 08/16/2021 – 23:03

A major forest fire broke out on Monday August 16 in the Var, in the south of France. Shortly before 10 p.m., he had already covered “several hundred hectares”, indicated the prefecture of the department.

“A major fire is underway in the Var with very unfavorable weather conditions”, for his part said the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who indicates “to follow the situation carefully.” “All my support for the 650 firefighters mobilized last night [lundi, ndlr] to protect residents, “he added.

A major system was put in place to fight the fire: 650 firefighters were deployed assisted by a dozen planes – seven Canadairs and two Dash – as well as three helicopters water bombers and the Dragon 83 of the Security civil, according to the Prefecture of Var.

240 firefighters should join them on Tuesday, from the Gard, the Alpes-Maritimes, the Alpes de Haute-Provence and the Bouches-du-Rhône. A departmental operational center was activated in the early evening Monday by the Prefecture.

Strong winds

Triggered around 5:45 p.m. at the Sigues motorway area on the A57, the fire was still fueled by a violent mistral at nightfall, while planes and helicopters had to stop their rotations. This strong wind blowing since Monday on the region had already fed fires of scrubland and forests at the gates of Marseille, at the entrance of the Calanques national park, or in the Var, towards the peninsula of Giens. These two fires have already been fixed.

The Var is also placed on heat wave vigilance by Météo France. Temperatures there reached up to 39 ° C on Monday. An overall drop in temperatures is however expected from Tuesday.

Preventively, all of the 25 forest massifs of Bouches-du-Rhône are prohibited from access on Tuesday, as are the massifs of the Toulon mountains in the Var. The seven other Var forest areas, at “severe” fire risk, will remain accessible, but under surveillance.

With AFP