the investigation is moving towards the “accidental” track

“A tractor clearing brush may have hit a metal object, this incident causing sparks and a fire,” estimated the Draguignan prosecutor, moving towards the accidental trail.

While the fire is now “fixed” in the Var, the investigation turns to the trail of the accident. “A tractor clearing brush may have hit a metal object, this incident causing sparks and a fire”estimated Wednesday June 12 the prosecutor of Draguignan, Pierre Couttenier, citing the possibility of an origin “accidental”. “Further assessments will be launched to confirm the origin of this disaster” which burned 600 hectares of forest in the Maures massif, he added.

Although the fire caused no casualties, 65 people living in hamlets near the fire were evacuated overnight before returning to their homes on Wednesday morning.

The system put in place by the firefighters was reduced by half after the fire was fixed around 4 p.m. and a “calm end of day”, now still 300 firefighters and 80 vehicles on site. The fire is now contained within a perimeter, despite potential outbreaks of flames in places. “Fixed does not mean mastered”recalled the prefect’s chief of staff, Joséphine Guigliano-Boutonnet, during a press briefing, specifying that the system may still be there “for several days”, until the fire is completely extinguished.

The fire, fanned by a violent wind, broke out on Tuesday around 3 p.m. in the town of Vidauban, in the hinterland of Saint-Tropez, an area often hit by fires in summer. “All the conditions are there for the summer season to be placed under a significant risk of forest fire“, warned Joséphine Guigliano-Boutonnet. “In any case, it allows us to say that the season has started, the risks are there,” emphasized Eric Grohin in the morning, the departmental fire director of the department. “We must be, both at the level of the population and the fire and rescue services, very vigilant from now on and I think everywhere in the region,”

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, a fire burned 500 hectares this year and led to the evacuation of nearly 200 people in eastern Spain in mid-April, fueled by unseasonably high temperatures. By 2023, half a million hectares had burned in the European Union, according to a report from the European Commission.

The south-east of France is historically affected by major fires in summer. Firefighters have obtained spectacular results since 1990 by massively attacking outbreaks of fire, a strategy which could reach its limits with the acceleration of human-caused global warming.

Since the 19th century, the average temperature of the Earth warmed by 1.1°C. Scientists have established with certainty that this increase is due to human activities, which consume fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). This warming, unprecedented in its speed, threatens the future of our societies and biodiversity. But solutions – renewable energies, sobriety, reduced meat consumption – exist. Discover our answers to your questions on the climate crisis.