An agent of the Nationwide Forestry Workplace (ONF) was indicted on Thursday night for “involuntary destruction by aggravated fireplace” as a part of the investigation into the fire which ravaged the Corbières massif, in Audethrough the summer time of 2025. The official disputes any involvement, in keeping with the Montpellier public prosecutor, Thierry Lescouarc’h.
This choice comes after the custody of three ONF agents. The opposite two have been launched with out cost at this stage. The prosecution didn’t element the details alleged in opposition to the accused. In line with Free Nooninvestigators are in search of particularly to find out whether or not a “cigarette butt” thrown from a patrol automobile may very well be the reason for the hearth.
“We’re in shock,” says an NFB official
The ONF confirmed the listening to of the three brokers and clarified that “because the institution will not be implicated, it doesn’t have entry to the file and doesn’t know the alleged details”. An area supervisor of the group informed AFP: “We’re actually in shock, collectively and individually”, including that “everyone seems to be stunned, saddened, slightly incomprehension”.
The previous mayor of Ribaute, Alain Coste, stated he was “surprised” that an agent chargeable for nature safety might doubtlessly be concerned on this “drama”. It additionally highlights the lasting penalties offire on the territory and its vacationer attractiveness.
Greater than 11,000 hectares burned
The hearth broke out on August 5, 2025 alongside a departmental street inhears earlier than being introduced beneath management on August 28. In line with justice, any pure origin has been “excluded”. The hearth affected 16 cities in Aude, destroyed 36 homes and brought on the dying of a 65-year-old lady in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.
With greater than 11,000 hectares burned, that is the most important fireplace recorded on the French Mediterranean rim for no less than fifty years, in keeping with the Authorities Database of Forest Fires in France (BDIFF).
