With the return of the wind, Météo France placed three departments in the south-east of France on Thursday on orange alert for forest fires, including Bouches-du-Rhône, which will even turn red on Friday. The risk of a fire starting will be “high” on Thursday in Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Vaucluse. For Friday, it will be “very high” in Bouches-du-Rhône and will remain high in the other two departments as well as in Hérault.
As a result, seven forest massifs will remain closed on Thursday in the Bouches-du-Rhône but the very touristy creeks between Marseille and Cassis will remain open. Six massifs will be prohibited from access in the Var and those of the Rhône valley in the Vaucluse. The authorities, who launched this new “forest weather forecast” this year, insist that nine out of ten fire starts are of human origin and call for great caution.
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According to estimates from Public Health France, published on Wednesday August 2, there were at least 80 more deaths than normal during the few days of heat wave that hit the country in early July. A first assessment that remains to be consolidated. “At least 80 excess deaths from all causes – 3.8% – were estimated during this heat wave in the departments concerned”, summarized the public health agency in a press release.
A phenomenon whose frequency is amplified by global warming, a heat wave is defined by a period of prolonged heat without interruption for several days. One of them hit around twenty French departments between July 7 and 13, one of many global demonstrations in a month rated as the hottest in the history of the planet.
