France | Beginning of calm on the fire front

(Rennes) Firefighters continued their fight against fires on Saturday, particularly in Gironde, Landes and Brittany, before a night which promises to be perilous with the arrival in the evening of dry thunderstorms from the west.

Sixteen departments remain on heatwave orange vigilance, and the heat wave should end on Sunday following the storms expected over most of France, but the scenario feared all day by firefighters in Gironde seems to be taking shape.

In Hostens, where the firefighters’ safety PC is installed in the fight against a resumption of the “Landiras-2” fire, the stormy night forecast on the forest massif “could be difficult” and lead to other fire starts on this fire which has ravaged 7400 ha since Tuesday but without progress for 72 hours, announced the prefect of Gironde Fabienne Buccio.

“The storms that are announced to us for the Gironde are dry storms, that is to say without rain, with lightning that will fall to the ground. This is not a good thing,” warned M.^me Buccio, recalling that “the fire is not fixed, but held” in the same perimeter since Thursday.

The authorities, also fearing “gusts of the order of 50 km / h”, will redeploy their device, with urban and forestry machines on the “periphery” of the areas of Teste-de-Buch and Landiras which burned in July , and Landiras-2. In addition, “1000 men” will remain mobilized in the forest massif, added Marc Vermeulen, the director of the firefighters of the Gironde.

Part of the first contingent of 146 firefighters and 49 Polish vehicles arrived in Hostens late Saturday afternoon. This is the last reinforcement column of the 361 European firefighters – after the arrival of German, Romanian, Italian, Greek and Austrian firefighters – to come to the aid of France for this “outstanding” fire.

Since Friday evening, 1,600 people have been able to return to their homes in Moustey and Saugnac-et-Muret, and on this Saturday classified as “red” by Bison Futé, the authorities have reopened the A63, which connects Bordeaux to Spain, closed since Wednesday on a portion of 20 km.

“We want to help”

“We are all volunteers here. We are trained, we want to help,” said Tone Neuhalfel, a 36-year-old German firefighter.

“We are happy because we know we are helping you, friends,” said Greek commander Anastasis Sariouglou, 36, who is on his first mission in France.

In Hostens, where the PC had taken on the air of a Spanish inn, Romanian Colonel Cristian Buhaiànu assured that his 77 firefighters-uniforms with red suspenders, caps and flocked trucks +pompierii+- were “ready to go into the field”.

In France, three times more hectares burned than the annual average of the last ten years, and the year is record in the European Union since the beginning of the records in 2006.

In the Jura, the fire resumed on Saturday in the middle of the day in the Vescles and Cernon sector, when it had been declared fixed in the morning. 150 additional hectares have been reduced to ashes, bringing the total land burned to more than 800 hectares since Tuesday in the department. Nearly 300 firefighters are on the scene as well as aerial extinguishers.

In Brittany, the mythical forest of Brocéliande, west of Rennes, saw nearly 400 hectares go up in smoke. But the fire is “no longer progressing” on Saturday, according to the prefecture.

The Monts d’Arrée, already hard hit with more than 2000 hectares lost since the beginning of the summer, were the scene of several “unfixed” fires on Saturday for a total of 200 hectares.

Two Swedish water bombers, Air Tractor AT 802 planes, carried out 42 drops there during the day according to the Finistère prefecture.

In the Drôme, the forest and vegetation fire that broke out on August 5 is “still not fixed” and the burned area now reaches 378 hectares.

In Mostuéjouls (Aveyron), a “virulent” resumption of fire on Saturday afternoon burned an additional 50 hectares and threatened 100 others, according to the prefecture, which announced the preventive evacuation of more than 130 people. Since Monday, 800 ha have burned between Aveyron and Lozère.

Faced with this “exceptional” situation, several large French companies have taken measures to facilitate the release of their volunteer firefighters, responding to the call of the Ministry of the Interior.

Gérald Darmanin asked the prefects to “be particularly vigilant” or even to cancel the traditional fireworks of August 15.

Fifteen prefectures have already taken orders prohibiting the use of fireworks, including the North, Pas-de-Calais, and Bouches-du-Rhône on Saturday.

Drought

The rainfall, expected from Saturday evening, will be insufficient to remedy the historic drought that the country is going through, warned Météo-France, after a month of July where less than one centimeter of rain fell on average. With 35.9 degrees, Brest broke its monthly record for the month of August on Saturday.

Over a large part of France, it is forbidden to water and 73 prefects have even prohibited water withdrawals from farmers in all or part of their departments.

Many forest massifs are also prohibited for walking this weekend in order to reduce the risk of fire starting.