Charente-Maritime will spend a third day at the maximum alert level for forest fires. This Sunday evening August 7, the prefecture, in consultation with the mayors of the territories concerned as well as the firefighters, decided to leave the department at very serious risk of forest fires. It means that the decree issued at that time remains in force. Thus, the Double Saintongeaise massif, in the south of the department, remains strictly forbidden to access.
Avoid any hot spot, cigarettes, barbecues… In the massifs. The propagations are unfortunately very fast because of the weather conditions.
Firefighters and prefecture adjust day by day, depending in particular on the weather forecast. Already this weekend, the conditions were unfavorable. But if “the operational activity was very intense these two days”as Commander Christophe Coffournic, CODIS officer, points out, finally, the firefighters were mobilized on less than ten fire starts. “All very quickly extinguished”, says the officer. Twenty-two hectares still burned overnight from Friday to Saturday at La Genetouze, precisely in the Double Saintongeaise massif. Also this Sunday, around thirty firefighters intervened in Soubran for another forest fire. Fire quickly brought under control, 1000 m2 burned.
The firefighters of Charente-Maritime also in reinforcement in the bordering departments
But the firefighters of SDIS 17 are also called beyond the borders of the department. This Sunday evening, for example, some lent a hand to their colleagues in the Dordogne. “We have _strong operational activity in neighboring departments_“confirms Christophe Coffournic.
The commander wishes to recall, once again, the right actions to adopt, and especially to proscribe in this time of intense risk: “Really avoid any hot spot – cigarettes, barbecues or whatever – in and around the forest massifs. The spreads are unfortunately very rapid in view of the weather conditions we are experiencing and the drought.”