The fire in the Landes and the Gironde is raging, but this Thursday morning, it spared a large part of the Landes villages according to our latest information. Despite the evacuations, a farmer chose to stay to dig a homemade firebreak.
The plumes of black smoke are only a few kilometers away, but in the village of Saugnac-et-Muret (Landes), a tractor is stirring up the earth at the side of the road. In the cabin, Philippe Charpentier’s telephone does not stop ringing. This retired farmer stays for dig a homemade firewall around his community. A monstrous and impressive work. This Thursday, August 10 in the morning, the village was completely spared by the flames.
This is our heritage, we must save it. Philippe Charpentier, retired farmer.
For nearly three kilometres, he uses a machine attached to the back of his tractor to “move the earth and the vegetation about fifteen centimeters”. Philip also has a cistern, filled with 30,000 liters of water which he makes available to the authorities to bring water to the front of the flames.