Within hours, they were plunged back into a nightmare.
Gironde firefighters are once again fighting a major forest fire that broke out on Tuesday afternoon.
At 10 p.m., at least 400 ha of pines were destroyed in the south of the department by several outbreaks of fire from the gigantic Landiras fire in July, leading to the evacuation of more than 3,500 inhabitants of the communes of Hostens Saint- Magne and Belin-Beliet.
Three neighborhoods and four housing estates in the town of Hostens (1,300 inhabitants), on the border with the Landes, have been evacuated, the municipality announced on its Facebook account, which opened a security PC in the village hall.
According to municipal councilor Pascal Bizzari, at least 500 people have left their homes to go, for the most part, to relatives.
#ForestFires |
Gironde episode II.
🥹 pic.twitter.com/N7o4IP5Nhn
– Firefighters of France (@PompiersFR) August 9, 2022
Quickly, 300 firefighters, many of whom were still fighting against all the resumptions of the giant fires that have affected the department in recent weeks, were mobilized.
According to our colleagues from Sud-Ouest, they used tactical fires (counter-fires) but a truck and three light vehicles were destroyed by the flames.
No injuries are reported.
Before nightfall, they had received the reinforcement of air assets.
“Rapid” fire, “unfavorable” situation for firefighters
“Thanks to unfavorable weather conditions, renewed fires are observed near Landiras” in the sectors of “Cabanac, Hostens, Saint-Magne”, indicated in a tweet the prefecture of Gironde.
According to a first assessment transmitted by the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis), these resumptions of fire burned "400 ha (of pines) in Saint-Magne" and "20 ha in Cabanac", near Landiras.
This town had been the scene in July of a gigantic fire which swallowed nearly 14,000 ha of forest and which is still not "under control" to this day.
🔴 #Disaster underway in #Gironde with an out-of-control #fire tonight 🔥.
Many evacuations are taking place in the #Hostens area.
A very complicated night in perspective… 📹 Johanna SG pic.twitter.com/3caq4HUaZd
— Loïc Spadafora (@loicspadafora) August 9, 2022
“These are hot spots which reactivated at the start of the afternoon, at the hottest hours of the day”, explained the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis), describing a “fairly rapid fire” and a “rather unfavorable” situation due to the warm south-easterly winds.
“We see a very black smoke, 2 or 3 km from the village”, added the municipal councilor of Hostens according to whom “large land resources” were implemented by the firefighters, without further details.
Tonight, Saint-Magne is burning.
Hostens is evacuated.
The Gironde is suffering.
It is unthinkable.
#fire #firefighters
Credit: SDIS33 pic.twitter.com/mMEgBEPzkm
— Margot Delpech (@margot_delpech) August 9, 2022
According to the mayor of Hostens, quoted by Sud-Ouest, the fire would have started on the edge of the departmental road.
“He skipped the departmental, explains Jean-Louis Dartiailh.
He leaves by the side of the road, in a green area.
We can assume that it is still a voluntary departure.
It's exhausting ".
“The fight is also underway on Sainte-Hélène in the Médoc, where a fire started at the start of the afternoon”, burning 15 ha, also specified the Facebook account of the Gironde firefighters.
It would have been fixed according to France Bleu.
