Fires in Gironde: more than 10,000 hectares ravaged, new evacuations

In the municipalities of Landiras and Guillos, in the south-east of the department, the situation is always “critical” in the evening. A new day in hell for the firefighters mobilized. Four days after the start of the fires, the Gironde firefighters continued to fight a “titanic” fight, “pine by pine”, to fix two indomitable fires which ravaged more than 10,000 hectares of forest and prompted more than 14,000 people to evacuate, in a context of widespread heat wave expected all weekend in France. In a message published at the end of the evening, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin confirmed this figure of “10,000 hectares burned” and “thousands of people evacuated. ” He also praised the “remarkable courage” of the firefighters mobilized. In the municipalities of Landiras and Guillos, in the south-east of the department, the situation is still “critical” in the evening, with “more than 7000 hectares” gone up in smoke , said the prefecture in a press release. Due to the “changing winds which make the fire progress on different fronts”, an order was given at the beginning of the afternoon to proceed with the evacuation of the “village of Tuzan, the hamlet of Villagrain in the commune of Cabanac-et-Villagrain and, in the commune of Hostens, the town and the nautical base”. In this sector, “1,900 people” evacuated the area, “including 93 minors”. In total, “more than 14,000″ residents and holidaymakers had to pack their bags urgently. Seven emergency accommodation centers and a medico-psychological emergency unit have been opened to support the victims.Several times the progression of the fire, without fixing it.” This evening, we are at 3200 hectares burned against 3150 this morning in La Teste-de-Buch, the perimeter is almost constant but the fire is not absolutely not under control “, declared in the evening to the press the sub-prefect of Arcachon Ronan Léaustic. “We have recoveries almost everywhere on the whole perimeter, because of the wind. he assured. In the afternoon, an operation secured by the police, allowing the inhabitants of Cazaux to “recover and feed their animals”, began before being interrupted due to ” a resumption of fire which has been stabilized”. It was then able to resume and is currently still in progress. In addition, a new strategy with the lighting of “tactical fires” and the “creation of firewalls” (clear cuts) has been put in place thanks to the use bulldozers and the joint work of Sdis with the National Forestry Office, the Gironde federation for the defense of forests against fires (DFCI) and forestry work companies. “We are working on the sides to fix them. It is a vigilance at all times, day and night, there is no stopping”, insisted the communication officer of Sdis 33, Laurent Dellac.
“We have almost 30 kilometers of edge so it’s a titanic job”, explained earlier his colleague, Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier Chavatte. In 24 hours, the Sdis “had to face 22 departures of forest fires on the department of Gironde”, pointed out the prefecture a little earlier. Other outbreaks of fire have indeed been reported in recent hours on the side of the beaches of La Lagune and Petit-Nice, south of the dune of Pilat. The day before, some 450 families had been able to recover their personal effects in the five campsites evacuated from this same sector. Blackened beaches In total, 1,200 firefighters were mobilized on Saturday on all the fronts. Since Tuesday, “4 firefighters have been slightly injured, a truck has overturned and 1 other has burned”, according to a latest report. Five bomber planes (3 Canadair and two Dash planes) perform rotations without stopping. On their subject, several voices of elected officials, including that of Jean-Luc Gleyze, PS president of the department and of Sdis 33, rose to claim the “permanent” presence of these machines “in the largest resinous massif of Europe”. In addition, fallout from the smoke from the La Teste fire blackened the beaches of the pond of Cazaux and Sanguinet, photographed and published by many people on social networks. Thursday, vigilance “forest fires “had gone up a notch in Gironde turning red (scale 4/5), as in the neighboring department of Landes since Friday morning. These fires, which did not cause any casualties, were triggered at the start of the episode of heat wave which affects France since Monday, mainly in the west and the south, where the maximum will remain very high until the beginning of next week, with values ​​between 35°C and 40°C, according to Météo-France. The Gironde is placed in orange “heat wave” vigilance by Météo-France, like 37 other departments. Firefighters were also deployed elsewhere in France to fight fires such as in the Bouches-du-Rhône where 400 of them remained mobilized this night in the Montagnette massif, south of Avignon, following the fire now fixed, which covered almost 1500 hectares. In Loire-Atlantique, 60 firefighters and about fifteen machines were mobilized on 3 vegetation fires, totaling 18 hectares of burned areas, said Sdis. And in Brittany, near Rennes, a fire destroyed 20 to 25 hectares of vegetation on Friday.