The prefect of Drôme ordered new preventive evacuations on Thursday, July 9, concerning around 400 people, as part of the fight against the fire in a mountainous area above Die, which covered around 3,500 hectares.
“Like every day, we observed this afternoon that the fire was reactivating in certain sectors. This is due to very unfavorable weather conditions as for several days: strong heat, certain wind, and a very sharp drop in humidity,” explained prefect Marie-Aimée Gaspari during a press briefing at the end of the day.
The authorities decided on “a preventive evacuation” of “around fifty people”, living in the west of the commune of Saulon-la-Chapelle, “where we had an area in which the fire continued to progress”.
Concerning another sector, the slope of the Justin massif which faces the town of Die, it is a campsite “which is located between the Drôme river and the bottom of this slope of the massif, in a kind of cul-de-sac with evacuation conditions which could prove extremely difficult” and surrounded by a pine forest, which must be evacuated. Some 350 people are currently there.
Reinforcements expected Friday
At the start of the week, 250 residents of the small villages of Barsac and Montmaur-en-Diois, and 450 children from two holiday camps in Die, were also evacuated. There are now 570 personnel who are mobilized on the ground, to extinguish this fire caused by lightning, on very uneven terrain, “including 300 Drôme firefighters, 270 from extra-departmental reinforcements”, according to the prefect, assisted by around a hundred gendarmes as well as agents from the National Forestry Office.
Four Canadairs, two Dashes and a water bomber helicopter participated in the fight against the fire by air during the day. Additional reinforcements are expected on Friday, with “80 Civil Security personnel”.
A firefighter was “injured in the ankle and evacuated” to the hospital before “returning to his assigned column,” said the general controller of the SDIS of Drôme, Franck Tournié.
