Images. Fires in the Landes: 56 hectares destroyed in Mimizan, between 30 and 40 in Seignosse – South West

The thick smoke was visible for several tens of kilometers around, the photographs flooded into social networks, this Saturday, August 28. A large-scale fire broke out in Mimizan at 3:55 p.m., in the area of ​​the Travelers’ area, on the Escource road, near the aerodrome. A surveillance camera and a phone call made it possible to locate the first flames. At 21:30, Eric Duverger, departmental director of the Landes fire and rescue service (Sdis 40), reported 56 hectares that had gone up in smoke. The fire was set for 10:30 p.m.

If a hundred firefighters were mobilized, about fifteen gendarmes ensured the blocking of traffic. The wind this Saturday complicated the operation. A helicopter, usually dedicated to swimming, was requisitioned. Two canadairs arrived from Nîmes as reinforcements to help control the fire. Sixteen water drops, taken from Lake Aureilhan, were carried out. At around 5 p.m., the preventive evacuation of around twenty caravans of Travelers was carried out. They were welcomed at the Moulin-Neuf municipal stadium in Mimizan.

“Even if there are operating losses, the most important thing is that people are safe,” said the mayor of Mimizan, Frédéric Pomarez. Communal and private plots are indeed affected by the fire.

The Prefect of the Landes, Cécile Bigot-Dekeyzer, insisted on underlining “the unfailing commitment of the gendarmes and firefighters on the spot”.

Colonel Éric Duverger explained that the teams could be mobilized for several days. “You have to be aware of the duration of a fire”. Daniel Pujos, deputy mayor of Mimizan, planned to appeal to the surrounding municipalities to lend vats. “With peat, homes can resume underground,” warned the elected.

The canadairs remain in Bordeaux in the event of a resumption of fire because the department is in moderate risk.

Between 30 and 40 hectares destroyed in Seignosse

In Seignosse, another fire broke out around 5 p.m. in the Étang Blanc area. 110 firefighters intervened on the ground. The fire did not evolve “not necessarily in one direction”, indicated, on the spot, at the end of the afternoon, the captain of the gendarmerie Frédéric Pardenaud. Gusts of wind greatly worried the emergency services. Around 10:30 p.m., between 30 and 40 hectares had been destroyed by the flames. Two canadairs, which rotated between Mimizan and Seignosse, flew over the area, carrying out eight drops. The fire was still not fixed, this Saturday evening, after 10 p.m.

About thirty people, who were staying in the L’Etang Blanc campsite, were evacuated, as were houses around the pond and a restaurant. It was a question of relocating the people concerned in a campsite in Capbreton, or in a room made available by the town hall.