The south of France was hit by a large-scale fire, which started on Wednesday afternoon from the department of Hérault before quickly spreading to neighboring Aude, under the effect of drought and wind.
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Around 11 p.m. (9 p.m. GMT), the fire had already covered 800 hectares, indicated the prefecture of this department which, like five others, was placed on Wednesday in “very high danger” of fire by the national meteorological service (Météo France).
At the same time, the fire was “contained at times”, the prefecture told AFP, but “not under control”.
Conditions on site are difficult for the hundreds of firefighters mobilized, with no access path in this hilly terrain. Two bulldozers were hired to clear access.
AFP
The fire broke out around 4:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. GMT) around the rural town of Oupia, in western Hérault, before moving “rapidly to the northeast of Aude in unfavorable climatic conditions,” the Aude prefecture said.
The temperatures of around thirty degrees were accompanied by significant gusts of wind, favoring the spread of the fire on low and very dry vegetation composed mainly of pine forest and therefore very flammable.
Some 550 firefighters from the two departments are engaged, helped by reinforcements from departments and gendarmes. At the same time, 150 to 200 people were evacuated in two municipalities in Aude.
AFP
This fire, the first of this magnitude in France this year, revives the painful memory of the mega-fire in the Corbières massif (south), the worst on the French Mediterranean rim for half a century, which covered around 17,000 hectares in August 2025, burning more than 11,000, not far from this new disaster.
It caused the death of a 65-year-old woman who was unable to leave her home in time and left several people injured.
Several other fires broke out on Wednesday mainly in the south of France, notably in two towns located around twenty kilometers north of Marseille.
