The probably criminal fire which ravaged nearly 1,200 hectares in Ardèche on Wednesday, without causing any casualties, was set for 6 am on Thursday.
If the fire is still going, the flames are no longer progressing.
“He stopped at the gates of the village of Vogüe”, detailed the prefect of Ardèche, Thierry Devimeux, on France Bleu Dôme Ardèche.
❗️ Update on the #fire on the set of Jastres.
🔥 The #fire is now fixed but there are still a few edges to deal with and monitor.
400 firefighters are still mobilized on the ground today.
The burnt area is about 1200 ha.
pic.twitter.com/PfVQxBBsum
— Prefect of the Ardèche 🇫🇷 🇪🇺 (@Prefet07) July 28, 2022
At midnight again, only one fire was still "active", according to Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Michel Chalancon of the SDIS de l'Ardèche, around the town of Lussas, near Aubenas, on which five separate fire starts were recorded on Wednesday morning.
Three other fire starts took place within a radius of 10 km.
“Last night we were a little worried because he was indeed progressing very quickly.
There was wind.
And then the wind slowed down. The Canadairs did a very, very hard job and so did the firefighters on the ground.
It made it possible to protect the village well and to set the fire in that place, ”said the prefect.
One man arrested, four firefighters injured
A man in his forties was actually arrested in Saint-Julien-du-Serre as he came out of a bush and got into his gray pick-up, seen near the lights in the Aubenas sector.
He was placed in a drunk tank at the end of the day.
At the start of the evening, the public prosecutor of Privas had, on Twitter, affirmed that the “criminal track” was “privileged”.
"GAV (police custody) in progress," he also tweeted, without immediately saying how many people were affected.
The last hotspots have not yet been extinguished.
400 firefighters are still on site to control them: "There are still hot spots that remain and 400 firefighters will remain hard at work all day to deal with these hot spots and prevent the fire from restarting, because it is also that, worry now, ”concluded the prefect of Ardèche.
On Twitter, he said that four firefighters were slightly injured.
In the Hérault, the fire also fixed
Earlier Wednesday, a fire that burned 800 hectares of vegetation near Montpellier could be fixed.
“No casualties are to be deplored and no homes have been affected by the fire”, announced at the end of the afternoon the prefecture of Hérault.
The prefecture has lifted its crisis unit.
As a precaution, some 130 out of 500 inhabitants of the Aumelas sector had been preventively evacuated for the night.
On Wednesday, all "were able to return to their homes", according to the authorities.
These new fires come a few days after the two “non-standard” fires which ravaged nearly 21,000 hectares of forest in Gironde for twelve days and led to the evacuation of some 36,000 people.
In this department, some 500 firefighters are still on site to deal with “the edges and hot spots”, probably for several more weeks, Thomas Couturier, spokesman for the firefighters, told AFP.
However, the red vigilance for the risk of fire has been lifted.
Read alsoHérault: a volunteer firefighter, suspected of being an arsonist, in police custody
One of the department's symbol sites, the Pyla dune, was able to reopen on Wednesday, "in secure conditions and with guided paths".