A campsite was destroyed in Argelès-sur-Mer during a fire that covered 480 hectares in the Pyrénées-Orientales during the night of Monday to Tuesday August 15, and around forty of the 3,000 evacuees are waiting in a gymnasium to be relocated or to return home.

The fire, which also affected the municipalities of Saint-André and Sorède, could be “fixed, stabilized” overnight. But hundreds of firefighters continued to monitor and water the burnt pine forests to prevent any resumption of fire throughout the day on Tuesday, according to the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (SDIS). They should be another 240 for the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, said SDIS 66. The flames affected 30 houses and entered eight of them, while a warehouse was “heavily impacted”, as well as the one of the campsites, explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the prefect Rodrigue Furcy.

Of the 300 people evacuated from the devastated campsite still housed in a gymnasium in Argelès on Tuesday morning, more than 250 have been accommodated in other campsites or hotels, or have left, the mayor of the city told AFP on Tuesday evening. , Antoine Parra.

Camp beds have been installed in the gymnasium. The prefect and the mayor spent part of the day there listening to holidaymakers who, having sometimes lost everything in the hasty departure from the campsite, told them of their difficulties. “We help them plan for the future. We are at their side to help them in their choices and their procedures, ”says Mr. Furcy. “We’re here to hear their grievances. Some are in anguish”, “their good weather has turned into a nightmare”, adds Mr. Parra.

No victims in the population, twenty injured firefighters

In front of the gymnasium, Laetitia Richard recounts her disaster departure from the Red Chênes campsite, ravaged by flames. “We were coming back from a walk and we saw the smoke. We said to ourselves: “It’s not possible! “Last year already, we were in Gironde, but 30 kilometers from the fire. This time it was very close,” she told AFP. “We loaded up what we could and left. We’re alive, that’s the main thing, “adds this 39-year-old woman, who came from Sables-d’Olonne, in Vendée, with her husband and two children to spend holidays in Argelès.

“We were in the pool and we saw smoke and ash. When I saw the planes, we took our things, ”says Stéphanie Bodinier, 49, who lives near Angers, and came on vacation with her husband and daughter.

There were no casualties in the population. According to civil security, 19 firefighters were slightly injured after inhaling the fumes and a twentieth was more seriously injured. A total of around 650 firefighters and aerial resources were mobilized to fight this fire, which started late Monday afternoon in Saint-André.

Bordering Spain, the Pyrénées-Orientales is the French department most affected by drought. The risk of fire is very high there, recalls the prefect. “We have several fire starts per day,” he said.

“The sector is a veritable powder keg”

“The Pyrénées-Orientales have suffered since the beginning of the year from increased drought, [the department is] on drought red vigilance. Many preventive actions have been carried out by firefighters. However, departures have been noted, which shows that the sector is a real powder keg, ”analyzes Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for the National Federation of Firefighters of France.

An investigation was opened for “arson aggravated by the endangerment of others” in order to determine the origin of the fire, which does not mean that the criminal track is privileged, specified the prosecutor of Perpignan, Jean-David Cavaillé.

The Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, went there on Tuesday afternoon to “show the government’s solidarity with those directly” affected by the fire, he said in Argelès. Also present, the Minister Delegate for Local Authorities, Dominique Faure, wanted to “show her support (…) for the civil security forces who were heroic in the face of this fire”.