Pyrénées-Orientales: More than 500 firefighters engaged in a major fire

FIRE Eight Canadair planes, three Dash planes, three water bomber helicopters and two reconnaissance and coordination planes were also mobilized

Firefighters battling forest fires. Illustration — UGO AMEZ

Several hundred hectares of pine forest burned down. Monday in a fire that affected three municipalities in the Pyrenees-Orientales, including Argelès-sur-Mer, we learned from the prefecture. The fire also affects the municipalities of Saint-André and Palau-del-Vidre, also located at about twenty kilometers south-east of Perpignan.

More than 3,000 people were evacuated from several campsites. “ The villages of Saint André, Sorède, and the town of Argelès are threatened, » firefighters.

Some 550 firefighters, including 150 from the department, were mobilized, as well as eight Canadair aircraft, three Dash aircraft, three water bomber helicopters and two reconnaissance and coordination aircraft.

“”A very violent fire is underway in the Pyrenees-Orientales. I call on the population and vacationers to the greatest vigilance,” for his part, wrote the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, on X (formerly Twitter).