WUI Fires in July 2015 – Blog – Pau Costa Foundation

Author: Jordi Vendrell, R&D Department in Pau Costa Foundation.

July has been a month with high activity in WUI Fires in all the Mediterranean Basin, but especially in Iberian Peninsula, Greece and France with some small fires in Italy. Here we’ve done a little report summarizing the activity with the links to photos, videos and news.

In France, fires affected mainly the south of the country from Gironde Department to Bouches-du-Rhône and Var Department, but also in Dijon area. Fire caused around 10.000 evacuations in Var and burned near 500 hectares at 30 km from Bordeaux. Velaux (Bouches-du-Rhône) was also affected with 30 ha burned, and 160 ha were burned in Chênove (near Dijon).

Bouches-du-Rhône

http://www.laprovence.com/actu/faits-divers-en-direct/3514134/un-feu-de-foret-entre-velaux-et-coudoux.html

Côte-d’or

http://www.bienpublic.com/edition-dijon-agglo/2015/07/21/incendies-de-chenove-et-hauteville-les-cliches-de-nos-internautes

Gironde

http://www.francetvinfo.fr/faits-divers/incendies-en-gironde/video-feux-de-foret-en-gironde-les-habitants-evacues-peuvent-rentrer-chez-eux_1017865.html

Var

http://www.francetvinfo.fr/faits-divers/incendie/var-10-000-vacanciers-evacues-a-cause-des-incendies_1017869.html

http://www.francetvinfo.fr/faits-divers/incendie/incendie-dans-le-var-le-feu-n-est-plus-tres-actif-mais-pas-eteint_1017873.html

http://www.europe1.fr/faits-divers/incendie-dans-le-var-ou-en-est-on-1371168

Iberian Peninsula had WUI Fires activity in northeast (Aragón and Catalonia) and south (Extremadura and Andalucía). In the south, fires affected mainly rural interfaces:

Lújar (Granada)

Plasencia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8bAbaGcCmY&feature=youtu.be&a

Incendio-Plasencia_EDIIMA20150718_0372_18_ElDiario — Plasencia Fire. Source: El Diario

In the north part, fires affected WUI areas in Catalonia, where fires in Girona and in the backyard of Barcelona were the most covered by media. Forest fire in Luna (13000 ha) and Òdena (1200ha) has been the largest fires in this area. Luna fire burned a large forest and agricultural area, affecting rural-urban interface with the evacuation of some small villages. Òdena fire burned also a large forest and agricultural area but with affectation of WUI areas when fire went against to a residential area.