Southern France’s Largest Wildfire in Decades Contained After Widespread Destruction

Officials in southern France said on Saturday that they have contained the biggest wildfire in the country this summer after days of frustrating firefighting. The fire started on Tuesday in the Aude department, killed a woman in her sixties, and injured thirteen, destroyed thousands of hectares of land. Officials said that while the fire is contained, they would not declare it extinguished for several days because of its potential to flare up again. 

The fire spread very rapidly in the early stages and at one point, was burning about 1,000 hectares per hour. There were about 2,000 firefighters working on the fire at its height ground and aerial crews including helicopters and water-bombing aircraft. The rapid fire spread was exacerbated by brisk winds in all directions making it difficult for firefighters assess the fire movement. The conditions started to improve by Thursday with quiet winds setting in and it ended up being a big advantage to the firefighters because there were almost no breezes blowing and this allowed them to efficiently extinguish hotspots.

The French prime minister said that the scale of the destruction was unprecedented not only in France, but Mediterranean history—a catastrophe which burned 17,000 hectares of land, including forests, vines, and homes. Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse was one of the villages affected hardest, with surrounding farmland and a small town with eucalyptus and pine trees burned to the ground. Residents described the scenes of destruction, which engulfed homes, crops, and their livelihoods in a matter of hours. The vineyard owner in nearby Tournissan said he lost decades of work to fire, describing his loss as emotional and financial. 

Authorities indicated that eleven of the thirteen were firefighters. According to emergency services, the only fatality was a 65-year-old woman who did not evacuate her property. She was later found in the rubble of her house. Fire officials said she was stuck, and could not leave because the fire spread so quickly. Escaping her home was likely impossible when considering the time it took to decide to leave. Officials cautioned evacuations are not always possible (which can be difficult to enforce), but evacuations are critical when there are fires that can change direction in minutes.

While the cause of the fire is still being investigated, there are no definitive lines of inquiry. Local authorities have observed an increasing incidence of large-scale wildfires in the Aude department over the last several years, which they attribute to climate factors and changes in land use. They cite a confluence of less rainfall, more intense and frequent weather patterns, and the eradication of vineyards—historically firebreaks—as creating conditions conducive to rapid fire spread.

The disaster has occurred amidst a summer which has produced an unusual level of wildfire risk along France's Mediterranean coast. Emergency management officials have recorded approximately 9000 fires nationwide this season, with the Aude fire being the largest in terms of both scale and intensity. Climate scientists suggest that hotter and drier summers, further exacerbated by global warming, will only accelerate the frequency of such incidents and complicate mitigation efforts. They refer to a prolonged period of drought and reduced soil moisture, coupled with increased heat waves, as synergistic forces that create fireworks for large-scale wildfires.

This week, the firefighting operation in France reached a turning point during the state of their wildfire in Spain, with an active emergency near the coastal town of Tarifa. Spanish authorities reported that the blaze has since stabilized, after prompting the emergency evacuation of more than 1,500 people and chopping down the removal of more than 5,500 vehicles from campsites or hotels. Local residents and visitors evacuated have been cleared to start returning to their homes and hotels. Investigations on the blaze noted that they believed that the fire began in a camper van parked on a beachside campsite in the proximity, and spread quickly due to strong wind.

Both countries have been hit with heatwaves in August with temperatures nearing 40°C in a number of places. Health officials in Spain reported more than 1,000 excess deaths in July that would be reasonably attributed to extreme heat. Experts indicated that increasing trends of extreme temperature, low rainfall, and an increasingly frequency of extreme heat may loosen the connection to climate change and had been shown to increase the function and intensity of wildfires in southern Europe.

In France, the government has committed to revising its systems for fire prevention, as well as bolstering preparedness for fire-prone regions. This will include expanding and reinforcing firefighting resources, upgrading early detection methods, and re-thinking how land is managed so that firebreaks can be more effective. Officials are also asking that local communities adopt more fire resilient behaviours and practices, including outright restrictions on building, and maintaining defensible space around structures in fire prone areas. 

For now, the priority is still to ensure that no hidden pockets of fire will reignite in the Aude department. Fire crews will remain on scene for several more days, monitoring still smouldering zones, and continuing to cool off impacted areas. While the fire affected area is contained, the psychological and economic impacts of the fire are expected to last far longer, as many residents will now have to rebuild homes, restore farmland, and recover from the anxieties of disasters.

The immense size of the wildfire, its speed, and destruction serves as a sobering reminder of the difficulty of dealing with climate change in Mediterranean landscapes. Experts predict these events will grow in frequency and size in the coming decades, and France and its European neighbours are being asked to adapt to hotter and harsher conditions.