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As temperatures break records on Wednesday July 19, the risk of fire increases. After the mega-fires of 2022, the authorities of the Cap Ferret peninsula are on alert and have just presented a maritime evacuation plan unique in France. Details.
In Lège-Cap-Ferret (Gironde), only one road leads to the tip of the Cap. A bucolic, but unique way: in the event of danger or fires, it would be over-stretched and insufficient. So the authorities thought of the boatmen. “It’s our daily life in fact, the evacuation, the transport of passengers. It goes very quickly. Boarding, it can take only five minutes to board 49 passengers”explains Francis Camps, boatman at the Union des Bateliers Arcachonnais (UBA).
12,000 to 14,000 people could be evacuated
Thanks to around thirty boats, in the event of a crisis, 12,000 to 14,000 people could be evacuated every day. Mostly, the solution is reassuring. The authorities are laying out the maritime evacuation plan almost a year to the day after the mega-fires of summer 2022. “It was very clearly a trigger, an awareness that the fires could have a particular violence with global warming. So, we have to adapt our systems”explains Olivier Lebas, Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic maritime zone.