The south-west of France was struck by a violent fire that involved the entire area between the cities of Narbona and Carcassonne: according to the latest budget of the prefecture, the stake has already destroyed at least 14,000 hectares including forests, woods and inhabited areas.
The fire broke out on Tuesday 5 August around 4:15 pm in the Aude Department, but quickly extended throughout the area, fueled by the strong winds and the typical dry vegetation this season. The French Fire Brigade spokesperson confirmed that it is a forest fire “out of the ordinary”, with the flames that are spreading at a speed of 5.5 km/h.
At the moment, the “head” of the fire was tamed by the 1,500 firefighters who intervened in the area: at least 9 people were injured (including 7 firefighters), while a woman died in Saint-laurend-de-la-Cabrisse.
Serious fires in the south of France: what is happening in the Aude
At the moment, the most affected municipalities are those of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrisse and Jonquières, which according to the authorities has been destroyed for 70%: over 1,500 firefighters and 9 Canadair and two helicopters have already been mobilized in the area. Due to the flames, at least 9 people were injured (7 of which 7 firefighters), while a woman was found dead in her home in Saint-Laurend-de-la-lacisse overwhelmed by the fire. In total, the stake destroyed 25 houses in the Aude department.
The causes of the stake have not yet been clarified, but the authorities have opened an investigation to establish the dynamics of the facts. In the meantime, the section of the A9 motorway that connects the Narbona to Spain has been closed to traffic in both senses.
As confirmed also by the French minister of the Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher in an X post, it is the most violent fire recorded in France since the beginning of the season and in recent years: the damage caused by the stake even exceeded those of the fire of Landiras (in the new Aquitania), which in 2022 had burned over 12,500 hectares.
The situation of fires in France
So far the fire season is proving to be particularly aggressive in France, where already on 9 July a violent stake had reached the city of Marseille, causing over 110 injured and destroying at least 63 buildings.
According to the data provided by the Copernicus Effis system, more than 34,000 hectares have already been lost since the beginning of the year during 239 fires: to understand each other, it is almost triple of the hectares burned throughout 2024 (12,268), a value three times higher than the average of the hectares burned between 2006 and 2024 (10,408).
In less than 8 months, therefore, more hectares have already been burned than all the last 5 years, excluding 2022, when a season of devastating fires sent 66,000 hectares in 290 bonfires in smoke.
In the latest updates, the vigils have declared that they had tamed the “head” of the fire in the Aude, even if the situation still remains critical due to the difficulties of intervention in the area of the Corbières massif: after mobilizing all possible resources, the authorities have warned that it will be difficult to tame the flames in the turn of the next few hours.
