In the Var, the fire is no longer progressing but threatens to spread in the coming days

Published on : 08/20/2021 – 10:38 PM

After five days of fighting the worst fire of the year in France, which killed two people, the fire was “fixed” on Friday August 20, but “not extinguished”, in the hinterland of Saint-Tropez. The firefighters remain on alert before an expected resumption of the wind in the weekend.

“We had a few times of fire today but much less than the previous days, we continue the work”, told AFP in the early evening, Stéphane Nepper, communication officer of the Var firefighters.

Friday morning, the prefect and the firefighters announced that the fire was “fixed” for the first time since Monday. “Fixed means that the head of the fire is no longer moving, but it is not extinguished,” said the director of the Var departmental fire and rescue service, Colonel Eric Grohin.

“The next three days will be decisive in overcoming this fire,” said the prefecture, the weather forecast indicating a resumption of the wind.

All the forest areas of the Var are placed at very severe fire risk on Saturday and Sunday and their access is prohibited.

Since Monday, this fire has burned 7,100 hectares of forest, vines and scrubland, devastating in particular nearly half of the Plaine des Maures National Nature Reserve, a haven of biodiversity.

Friday, the human toll did not change with two dead and 26 light injuries including seven among firefighters. Two charred bodies were found in a property in Grimaud, in a hamlet in a deep valley. The Draguignan prosecutor, Patrice Camberou, assures us that it will take “several days” to officially identify these bodies.

Ongoing research on the origin of the fire

This fire, in the middle of summer, in a very touristy department, required the evacuation of some 10,000 people, some of whom spent four nights in an accommodation center.

Only a few people were still in shelters on Friday, the others having returned to their homes or to a vacation spot.

On the side of the investigation, if “we know where the fire started” (a motorway area), “we are working to find out the exact cause,” said the prefect.

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Butts were identified by investigators on the highway area, but it is “very early” to say that they are indeed at the origin of the disaster, told AFP the prosecutor of Draguignan who coordinates the ‘investigation.

“These butts are a possible cause, but not necessarily the cause,” added the magistrate, who considers it necessary to resort to additional expertise.

About fifty households still without electricity

The prefecture has set up a medico-psychological emergency station to meet the needs of the victims of the fire, the prefecture said on Friday evening. In addition to the inhabitants who saw their house destroyed or damaged by the flames, about fifty households are still without electricity.

Asked about RTL, Jean-Louis Pestour, national forest fires manager at the National Forestry Office, believes that “it will take a long time before the entire sector will turn green again”. It will take “between 30 and 40 years before finding the same ecosystem”, he explained “, while ensuring that” fortunately all is not dead “.

In a letter, the former actress Brigitte Bardot, defender of the animal cause, asked the prefect of the Var to “postpone the opening of the hunt” in the face of this “ecological disaster”.

Producers of rosé de Provence, highly prized in the United States and Europe, have also paid a heavy price, some winegrowers having seen their equipment or sheds reduced to ashes.

Several countries around the Mediterranean, from Israel to Morocco, via Algeria or Spain, were affected by serious fires this summer.

With AFP