There were no injuries but the consequences could have been dramatic in these two fires, which occurred at the end of the afternoon on Tuesday. At Simencourt, west of Arras, about 40 hectares of fields were affected by a fire, the largest in Nord-Pas-de-Calais in terms of area concerned. About fifty firefighters were mobilized, helped by farmers on site. Departmental 7 was cut in both directions during the intervention.
More than three hours of intervention near Calais
At the same time, at the gates of the agglomeration of Calais, 23 hectares of thatch were destroyed, as well as two houses, in Coulogne. The closest residents were quickly taken to safety. About sixty firefighters were mobilized, coming from eight different barracks for a little over three hours of intervention. A total of 170 firefighters were engaged on Tuesday on the fires in Pas-de-Calais.
A fire truck that came to reinforce the Marck-en-Calaisis aerodrome, which did not belong to the Pas-de-Calais fire brigade, capsized on a motorway exit ramp. One officer was slightly injured.
It had never been so hot at night in Boulogne-sur-Mer
Temperature records were broken during this second day of heat wave. In Calais, according to Météo France, the thermometer showed 39.9 degrees, i.e. one degree more than the previous record which dated from 2019. The same record was reached in Le Touquet. In Boulogne-sur-Mer, the 2020 record was beaten by two degrees with 39.6 held on Tuesday. The minimum was also beaten overnight from Monday to Tuesday: the thermometer did not drop below 26.6 degrees against 23.8 degrees recorded so far.