Residents forced to flee a fire that broke out near Brignoles on Wednesday evening have been cleared to return home after the blaze was brought under control, however with a new heatwave settling over the region the Var prefecture has warned that conditions remain difficult and vigilance is essential.
The fire started at around 5pm on Wednesday 29th July in the south-eastern part of Brignoles, on the road towards Camps-la-Source, and spread quickly through roughly 100 hectares of vegetation. With homes directly in its path, the authorities triggered the national FR-ALERT system and evacuated around 600 people from a string of neighbourhoods, among them Pélicon, Tombarel, Les Jausserannes, Sainte-Barbe, Les Agasses and Les Petits Ubacs. More than 100 people, including some three dozen children, spent the night in an emergency shelter set up in the town’s exhibition hall.
The response was substantial, with some 250 firefighters on the ground backed by Canadair and Dash water-bombers and several helicopters. Four firefighters were injured, one seriously with a broken leg. The cause is under investigation: the authorities have said the fire did not start at the roadside, and have ruled nothing out, including an accidental or deliberate origin.
All clear for evacuated residents
By Thursday, the prefecture announced that the fire was under control and that the last evacuation orders — for the Les Jausserannes and Pélicon districts, held back so firefighters could secure them — had been lifted, allowing all residents to return home. Crews are continuing to secure some 10 kilometres of fire edges and to douse the remaining hot spots, with water-bombing helicopters still in the area and a drone team assisting overnight. The RD12 remains closed between Camps-la-Source and Les Jausserannes, with traffic diverted onto the RD43, and the prefecture has cautioned that high temperatures and strengthening afternoon winds are keeping conditions unfavourable.
A second fire in a matter of days
The Brignoles blaze is the second serious fire in the Var in a matter of days. It broke out just as the much larger Gros Bessillon fire, further north-west around Pontevès and Cotignac, was being brought under control after burning some 4,500 hectares over eight days, forcing around 5,000 people from their homes and destroying more than 30 houses. That fire was declared stabilised on Tuesday, though hundreds of firefighters remain deployed to secure the ground.
A heatwave keeps the risk high
The renewed fires coincide with a fresh heatwave. Météo-France placed 21 departments under orange heat vigilance on Thursday — the level below the maximum red — among them the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes, along with the Hautes-Alpes and the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Temperatures are forecast to reach around 39°C inland, in the fourth heatwave to hit France this summer, sharply raising the danger of new fires and of flare-ups on ground that has only just been secured.
The wider picture
The Var’s fires are far from the largest in the country. In the south-west, a vast blaze west of Bordeaux, in the Gironde, has burned around 42,000 hectares and injured dozens of firefighters, while a fire in the neighbouring Landes has been stabilised, allowing more than 30,000 people to return. Across France and Spain, the fires of recent days have forced roughly 330,000 people from their homes, in what officials have called some of the worst in living memory. Scientists note that Europe is warming at about twice the global average, the fastest of any continent, and that such episodes are becoming more frequent.
Across the region, authorities are urging residents and visitors to take particular care in the heat, to respect any restrictions on access to forests and scrubland, and to report the first sign of smoke without delay.
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Photo source: Préfet du Var Facebook page