A year after the fire in the Corbières massif, the south of France was once again hit by a large fire that started on Wednesday July 1 in the afternoon in Hérault before quickly spreading to the neighboring department of Aude under the effect of drought and wind, fought by hundreds of firefighters.
Around 11:00 p.m., 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 Météo France. “The fire is contained at times,” the prefecture said around 11 p.m. but “it is not under control.”
Conditions on site made it difficult for firefighters, with no access path in this hilly terrain. Two bulldozers were hired to clear access. “The fire moved very quickly because the storm Nils destroyed a lot of plants and that provides fuel for the fire,” declared the mayor of Sainte-Valière, a town affected by the fire, referring to the strong storm which crossed the south of France in February.
Interministerial crisis unit in Marseille
The fire, which occurred as a new heatwave episode looms, comes at a time when the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, must go to Marseille on Thursday to chair a new interministerial crisis unit dedicated to the heatwave, the fires and the essential adaptation to deal with them.
The fire broke out around 4:30 p.m. around Oupia (Hérault), around thirty kilometers north of Narbonne, before moving “rapidly to the north-east of Aude in unfavorable climatic conditions”, said the Aude prefecture. 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.
Memory of Corbières
Some 550 firefighters from the two departments are engaged, helped by reinforcements from Tarn, as well as around thirty gendarmes. At the same time, confinements and 150 to 200 people were evacuated in the municipalities of Pouzols-Minervois and Mailhac (Aude). Other reinforcements from Gard were expected in the evening.
Four Canadairs, two Dash planes and a water bomber helicopter are in action, added the Aude prefecture in a situation update at 8:30 p.m. Several departmental roads were cut off to traffic while a large plume of smoke was visible for kilometers around.
This fire, the first of this magnitude in France this year, revives the painful memory of the mega fire in the Corbières massif, the worst on the French Mediterranean rim in half a century, which covered around 17,000 hectares in August 2025, burning more than 11,000, southwest of Narbonne, 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, and mobilized hundreds of firefighters. In the Var, in Fréjus, in a peri-urban area, a fire covered around thirty hectares but was contained, the firefighters indicated in a situation update at 7:30 p.m. Some 2,200 people were evacuated as a precaution from the six campsites located in the surrounding area, but all should be able to return to their campsites during the evening, firefighters assured.
Two other fires broke out late Wednesday in Rognac and Lançon-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), towns located about twenty kilometers north of Marseille. Around 12:30 a.m., the fires were still unestablished and had already covered around 200 hectares in Lançon, in a forest area, and 35 in Rognac for which significant land and air resources were mobilized, according to the department’s firefighters.
