“The fire has been fixed, that is to say that it is no longer evolving on Opoul. But it is not yet considered under control because we have a few hot spots to deal with. We remain extremely cautious due to the weather conditions, wind forecast for the afternoon,” a spokesman for the fire department told AFP.
The main fire, between the municipalities of Opoul-Périllos and Salses-le-Château, about twenty kilometers from Perpignan, devastated 1,150 hectares of vegetation in this sector, where 120 firefighters remained deployed Thursday.
Another fire, which broke out the day before near the village of Bélesta and destroyed 80 hectares in this area some 37 km from Opoul, was however considered to be under control and 16 firefighters were still on site.
The four injured firefighters, mentioned by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who went to Opoul on Wednesday, were only slightly injured due to smoke inhalation, according to the same source.
At the height of the fires, 350 firefighters, including reinforcements from other departments of Occitanie and the South-East, as well as water bomber planes and helicopters, were deployed in the Opoul and Salses sector, where 300 people had also been temporarily evacuated on Tuesday, from a campsite and a housing estate.
The prefect of Pyrénées-Orientales, Etienne Stoskopf, announced that investigations would be opened following the detection of at least eight fire starts on Tuesday alone.
