550 firefighters again spent the night from Friday to Saturday in the Cévennes on the Bordezac fire (Gard). The fire has already covered 650 hectares but is going much slower thanks to their intervention. More than a hundred from Herault and Bouches-du-Rhône were thus able to leave the sector. Olivier Martin, the mayor of Gagnières, the village located just opposite Bordezac, was this Saturday the guest of France Bleu Gard Lozère : “We breathe a little better, the night was a little cooler, the wind didn’t blow last night. But there is a heavy silence. We no longer hear the planes flying, we no longer hear the columns of firefighters coming and going“.
“It’s a landscape of desolation. We must not forget. Life quickly takes over, but we must not forget, because we felt that we were not safe from such a disaster for years” Olivier Martin, mayor of Gagnières, on FB Gard Lozère
The area had already experienced a major fire in the early 1980s. But, a fire “so vast, so heavy, in such a difficult atmosphere with the mistral, with a very very low humidity rate.. I don’t think I have known so many factors favoring the fire“, indicates the mayor on FB Gard Lozère.
We have to settle down and approach the forest differently. It’s our friend, but it’s an economic resource, but that’s not enough. We have to maintain it, we have to respect it. She reminds us that she is there, that she is part of us. And it’s not enough to look at it, we will have to manage all that”, Olivier Martin, mayor of Gagnières, on FB Gard Lozère
You can listen to his entire interview here in the 7am newspaper of France Bleu Gard Lozère