The fire of Mediterranean vegetation which broke out on Tuesday about twenty kilometers from Montpellier (Hérault) "is no longer progressing", even if it is not yet fixed.
Update on the situation after a night of fighting the flames.
The fire is not yet fixed
“He is no longer progressing.
It has not yet been fixed, because we still have many edges to deal with, so we will pass it fixed when these edges are calmer, ”estimates at dawn this Wednesday Lieutenant-Colonel Jérôme Bonnafoux, spokesperson for the Hérault firefighters.
“The objective, before the wind picks up, is to really stall it, so that afterwards we can get into action and that we are not bothered when the wind picks up,” he explained. .
“We remain very vigilant, the wind has calmed down throughout the night, but it will pick up, as well as the temperatures.
So we are going to have yesterday's situation again ”, also underlines this Wednesday morning on BFMTV Éric Suzanne, sub-prefect of Lodève (Hérault).
“All the effort consists in that it no longer moves from the edges”.
The areas burned since the double start of fire in the town of Gignac late Tuesday morning are of the order of "800 to 900 hectares", according to the spokesperson for the firefighters.
More than 600 firefighters mobilized
The approximately 650 firefighters mobilized, 500 from Hérault and 230 from other departments who arrived as reinforcements, specifies France Bleu, continued their work on the ground all night, "in difficult conditions since without air support", underlines Lieutenant- Colonel Bonnafoux.
The three water bomber planes of the Hérault departmental cell were to resume their drops from 7 a.m. "to really perfect (the work) on the edges and prevent them from resuming", he specified. .
The weather conditions this night were in favor of the firefighters, with "a drop in temperatures", continues the lieutenant-colonel.
Two departures of fires, 1.5 km apart, broke out on Tuesday in the municipalities of Saint-Bauzille-de-la-Sylve, Gignac and Aumelas, before joining, in a difficult to access and sparsely populated area made up of garrigue, holm oaks and vines.
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“We could see on the hill that the fire was progressing, then after we returned home because the air was starting to be a little stifling and it stung the eyes”, testifies Stéphanie Gauthier, resident of the village of Aumelas, evacuated for the night by the gendarmes.
No victim
“No casualties are to be deplored” and “no damage” observed on the buildings, said Tuesday evening during a press briefing the commander of the relief operations, Colonel Sylvain Besson.
Some 280 people were the subject of a preventive evacuation in the town of Aumelas and fifty people found refuge in a village hall in the neighboring town of Vendémian, said the prefecture.
The sub-prefect of Lodève announces this Wednesday morning that the evacuated inhabitants could potentially return to their homes during the day, “if conditions allow it”.
The confinement which targeted a village threatened by the flames was lifted on Wednesday, he said.