More than 110 hectares of vegetation burned on Monday in the Pyrénées-Orientales, requiring the mobilization of 400 firefighters, according to SDIS 66. The fire broke out shortly before 3 a.m. near Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes and did not threaten no inhabited area. Driven by the Tramontana, a northwest wind, the flames were heading towards a mountainous area, according to firefighters.
Five planes and a helicopter water bombers were then dispatched to the scene. “The fire is still not under control. We hope that the wind will drop at the start of the afternoon,” said Captain Brice Lafontaine, of the Pyrénées-Orientales Fire and Rescue Service (SDIS).
The other big fire in Occitania, which ravaged 1,360 hectares in Aveyron, was “fixed” by firefighters, the prefecture announced on Monday in a press release.