After the Gironde, Hérault is ravaged by flames. A fire, in an area difficult to access located about twenty kilometers from Montpellier, devastated Tuesday, July 26 more than 1,000 hectares of Mediterranean vegetation. Two departures of fires 1.5 km apart broke out in the municipalities of Saint-Bauzille-de-la-Sylve, Gignac and Aumelas, before joining, in a sparsely populated area composed of scrubland, holm oaks and vines. In total, 1,000 hectares have burned, according to the latest report published by the Hérault prefecture overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. Follow our live.
Nearly 300 people evacuated. “No casualties were reported” and “no damage” found on the buildings, said Tuesday evening during a press briefing the commander of relief operations, Colonel Sylvain Besson. Nearly 300 people were evacuated and 650 firefighters are mobilized.
The privileged criminal track. “A judicial investigation has been opened on a criminal hypothesis”has declared Montpellier prosecutor Fabrice Bélargent. “We think it’s criminal, it’s disastrous”reacted the mayor of Gignac Jean-François Soto, recalling that a Natura 2000 area for the preservation of biodiversity was nearby. “When you see all the efforts we make, he breathed, all the means that we put (…) and the result in the end, it’s hard.”