Fire in the Var: “This fire is extraordinary in its speed, scale and complexity” – Le Monde

A seemingly perfectly safe neighborhood, suddenly threatened by flames. Residents pulling out the garden hoses in an attempt to protect their homes. A swirling wind and a thick cloud of gray smoke masking the blue of the sky. Wednesday, August 18, in the afternoon, the immense fire which sets ablaze the Massif des Maures and the hinterland of Saint-Tropez, in the Var, continued its course. “This fire is extraordinary in its speed, scale and complexity, recognizes the commander of firefighters Florent Dossetti. We will have to continue to actively fight. ”

Despite two days and two nights of considerable effort to try to control the disaster, the wind caused significant resumption of fire. The flames have already covered more than 7,000 hectares and an eighth campsite has been evacuated. In total, at least 10,000 people have had to leave their place of residence or vacation in haste since Monday. The prefecture of Var has also confirmed the death of two people, whose bodies were discovered in a charred house in Grimaud. Some 1,200 firefighters remain mobilized and additional reinforcements have been announced.

On Monday, the fire broke out around 5:30 pm on a motorway area in the town of Gonfaron. The firefighters were then on the alert because of the explosive weather conditions. A thousand of them – out of the 5,000 in the department – are on duty, and significant land and air resources are pre-positioned in Luc, just a few kilometers from Gonfaron. “I was on the base, as soon as we saw the smoke, three helicopters with 6,000 liters of water left”, says Florent Dossetti. In the vast majority of cases, firefighters manage to control the outbreaks of fire – five to six on average during “small days”, up to fifty for “big days”. But on this day, the flames are the fastest.

“Jumps of fire”

In a few hours, they cover about twenty kilometers. A colossal distance. “The speed of propagation has reached up to 8 km / h, that’s the speed of a man running in the woods! “, insist the spokespersons of the firefighters. Wind gusts of 80 km / h, extremely dry air, a thermometer at 37 ° C after four days of heatwave: all the ingredients are there to promote this fire.

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