Firefighters continued their fight against fires in France on Saturday, particularly in the Gironde, Landes and Brittany. The night promises to be dangerous as dry thunderstorms move in from the west in the evening.
Sixteen departments are on heat wave orange alert, and the heat wave is expected to end on Sunday as storms are expected across much of France, but the scenario firefighters fear is shaping up throughout the day in the Gironde.
In Hostens, firefighter safety PC set up to fight ‘Landiras-2’ fire rekindling, says stormy night forecast for forest ‘may be difficult’ and could lead to other fire outbreaks in this blaze. It has destroyed 7400 hectares since Tuesday, but without progress for 72 hours, announced the editor-in-chief of the Gironde Fabienne Buccio.
‘The storms reported to us for the Gironde are dry storms, that is, without rain, with lightning falling to the ground. “It’s not a good thing,” warned Ms. Puccio, recalling that since Thursday, “fires have not been fixed, but held” in the same perimeter.
Fearing ‘winds of up to 50 km/h’, officials will again deploy their device with urban and forestry machinery in the ‘periphery’ of the Teste-de-Buch and Landras and Landras areas that burned in July. -2. In addition, ‘1000 men’ will be mobilized in the forest massif, added Marc Vermeulen, director of the firefighters of the Gironde.
International assistance
Part of the first team of 146 firefighters and 49 Polish vehicles arrived in Hostens on Saturday afternoon. It was the last reinforcement column of 361 European firefighters – after the arrival of German, Romanian, Italian, Greek and Austrian firefighters – to come to France’s aid for this ‘great’ fire.
Since Friday evening, 1,600 people have been able to return to their homes in Mousty and Sagnac-et-Muret, and this Saturday Bison Fuete was classified as ‘red’, as authorities reopened the A63, which connects Bordeaux to Spain, after being closed. 20 km from Wednesday.
In Hostens, where the PC broadcasted at the Spanish Inn, Romanian Colonel Christian Buhainu assured his 77 firefighters – uniforms with red bands, hats and trucks ‘bombier’ – were ‘ready to go into the field’.
Record year
In France, three times the annual average of hectares have been burned over the past ten years, and has been the annual record in the European Union since records began in 2006.
In Jura, in the Vesicles and Cernan sectors, the fire started again mid-Saturday, when it was reported that it had been fixed in the morning. An additional 150 hectares have been reduced to ashes, taking the total area burnt since Tuesday in the department to over 800 hectares. Approximately 300 firefighters are on the scene and aerial extinguishers.
In Brittany, the legendary forest of Prosiliante, west of Rennes, saw nearly 400 hectares of smoke. But the fire was no longer “advancing” on Saturday, according to the province.
Monts d’Arrée, already hard hit with more than 2000 hectares lost since the start of summer, was the scene of several ‘unsolved’ fires on Saturday totaling 200 hectares.
Two Swedish water bombers, Air Tractor AD 802s, made 42 drops there during the day, according to the province of Finisterre.
In Drome, the forest and vegetation fire that broke out on August 5 is “still not under control” and the burned area has now reached 378 hectares.
In Mostujols (Aveyron), a ‘hostile’ fire again on Saturday afternoon burned 50 additional hectares and threatened 100 people, according to the province, which announced the preventive evacuation of more than 130 people. Since Monday, 800 hectares have burned between Aveyron and Lozère.
An ‘exceptional’ situation
Faced with this ‘exceptional’ situation, many large French companies have accepted the invitation of the Ministry of the Interior to facilitate the release of their volunteer firefighters.
Gérald Darmanin asked the principals to “be especially vigilant” or cancel the traditional fireworks display on August 15.
Fifteen provinces have already received orders banning the use of fireworks, including the North, Pas-de-Calais and Bouche-du-Rhône on Saturday.
Drought
Météo-France warned that the rainfall expected from Saturday evening would not be enough to address the historic drought sweeping the country, which has seen less than a centimeter of rain on average since July. With 35.9 degrees, Brest broke its monthly record for August on Saturday.
In much of France, irrigation is banned, and 73 heads of state have banned water from farmers in all or part of their departments.
Several forest massifs are also off-limits this weekend to reduce fire risk.
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