Less than a day after firefighters contained a massive blaze to the north, a new wildfire erupted southeast of Brignoles on Wednesday evening, forcing the urgent evacuation of more than 600 residents and leaving two firefighters injured. The flames, which broke out around 5 p.m., had already consumed roughly 100 hectares of vegetation by late night, according to a fire service spokesperson.
A Virulent Blaze Under Control, But Still Dangerous
The fresh outbreak comes as the Var department swelters under an orange heatwave alert, with temperatures forecast to hit 39°C inland on Thursday. Despite the extreme conditions, officials offered a measured assessment of the fire’s behavior overnight.
“The fire is progressing little because there is no more wind, but it remains virulent,” Var prefect Simon Babre stated during an evening press briefing. A new update is scheduled for Thursday morning.
Among the 250 firefighters mobilized to combat the flames were aerial support units including three Canadair water bombers, two Dash aircraft, and seven water-dropping helicopters. Operations continued throughout the night. The prefect confirmed that two firefighters were injured during the response; one suffered from heatstroke, and another was hurt in a fall.
Hundreds Sheltered as Mayor Suspects Arson
The fire triggered the evacuation of approximately 650 people from peripheral neighborhoods of Brignoles, a town of 17,000 inhabitants. A prefectural statement detailed that overnight, 120 adults and 36 children were sheltered at the Brignoles Exhibition Hall. Residents from areas not officially listed in the alert who chose to evacuate preventively were permitted to return to their homes.
While the official origin of the fire remains undetermined, Brignoles mayor Didier Brémond expressed strong convictions about its cause. “Everything leads us to believe” the fire is “criminal,” the conservative mayor declared, pointing to the nature of the fire’s ignition. “When you see the start of the fire, it’s hard to imagine it was a discarded cigarette butt or that it started like that.”
Prefect Babre, however, urged caution against premature conclusions. “We will need to observe the terrain, be careful with hasty conclusions,” he noted.
A Region Under Siege
This new disaster unfolds just as the region catches its breath from the Gros Bessillon fire, which ravaged 4,500 hectares over eight days north of Brignoles, encircling iconic Provençal villages like Cotignac and Correns. That fire, which started on July 21 in Pontevès, forced nearly 5,000 people to evacuate at its peak.
Government data indicates that 263 people, including 92 minors, have been in fire-related investigations since June 28. While nine out of ten fires are human-caused, experts and commentators emphasize that the catastrophic scale of these blazes is intrinsically linked to climate change, citing repeated heatwaves, drought, and highly flammable vegetation as key accelerants.
