Some 200 firefighters, supported by Canadair, were fighting on Saturday afternoon against a forest fire near Saint-Marcel-lès-Annonay, in Ardèche, which has already destroyed dozens of hectares and threatened houses, a-t- we learned from the Codis department.
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" Ultimately, 280 firefighters " will also come from the Loire and the Drôme who will be mobilized to fight the fire which started in the early afternoon, told AFP the Departmental Fire Operations Center and relief (Codis) of Ardèche. Driven by the wind, the fire, the origin of which has not yet been determined, risked heading towards the neighboring Loire department.
The inhabitants, who watered their houses to protect them, all remember, according to the regional daily Le Progrès, the fire of August 20, 2000 which had devastated 1,800 hectares in this same sector between the Ardèche and the Loire, without of victims. At the time, 950 firefighters had braved the furnace and about fifty homes, in several hamlets, had been evacuated.
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The Ardèche and the Loire were still placed on Saturday in orange heat wave vigilance by Météo France.