The fire in the Pyrénées-Orientales department has already burned about 2,000 hectares, prompting the local prefect, Pierre Regnault de la Mothe, to order the evacuation of 10,000 people Sunday evening — twice the number initially planned earlier that day.
The evacuation covers more than a dozen municipalities in the Aspres massif. Just hours earlier, the fire had covered 1,600 hectares, but authorities said heat, drought and strong winds were causing it to spread rapidly.
Fires also broke out in two other departments in southern France. Because of the blaze, Monday's third stage of the Tour de France will be held without spectators, the prefect announced at an evening news conference in Perpignan, the department's capital. About 700 firefighters, supported by water-bombing planes and helicopters, are battling the fire in Pyrénées-Orientales.
In the neighboring Gard department, also in the Occitanie region, a fire has burned 350 hectares and led to the partial closure of the A9 highway linking Lyon and Barcelona. Seventy people were evacuated, and residents in several towns were ordered to stay indoors. In the Drôme department, 300 firefighters are battling a blaze covering about 300 hectares in an unpopulated area.
Temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) prompted authorities to place seven southern French departments — Gard, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Vaucluse, Hérault, Drôme and Ardèche — under an orange heat alert Sunday. On Monday, 16 departments in southern and western France were under the same alert.
French Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said Friday that 2,025 people have died as a result of the heat wave that hit France in late June.
(jh)
Source: Polish Radio