He forgot to turn off his barbecue that he was transporting on the motorway: the latest update this Monday morning on the fire in Aude which burned 300 hectares

The fire that broke out in the Aude department on Sunday, June 29, 2025, was under control on Monday morning, after covering some 400 hectares, 300 of which were burned, we learned from the firefighters of this department in the Occitanie region.

"All the fires are fixed , we are treating the edges and extinguishing the stumps," said a spokesperson for Sdis 11.

The A61 motorway reopened

The A61 motorway between Toulouse and the Mediterranean, which had been closed on Sunday between Lézignan and Narbonne due to the severity of the flames, was reopened to traffic around 7 a.m., Vinci said in a press release.

Campsite evacuated, residents taken to shelter

The thirty people who had been evacuated from a campsite in Bizanet were still being cared for on Monday morning, while the 60 residents of a housing estate, sheltered on Sunday evening as a safety measure, were able to return home .

Nine firefighters slightly injured

More than 400 firefighters were still present to secure the area, after being "more than 600 at the height of the fire" , the Sdis stressed.

Some nine firefighters were slightly injured, including victims of heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation and, for one of them, a fall.

A barbecue caused the flames

The fire started "from a barbecue, which was being transported along the motorway, behind a vehicle, on a trailer," Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Sunday from Beauvau.

A suspect was arrested and taken into custody for "unintentional destruction by fire of wood and forest" , said the Narbonne prosecutor, Eric Camous.

According to initial findings of the investigation, it appears to be a trader who, upon returning from a market, did not realize that his brazier was not extinguished.