Finally the beginning of the calm?
The situation is improving on the front of many of the fires that have affected France for several days.
And even if the heat will continue to rage this Saturday, the showers expected this Sunday could help firefighters, who are still struggling across the country.
More progress in Gironde and Landes
A month after the two gigantic fires of Landiras and La Teste-de-Buch in Gironde, the resumption of fire of "Landiras-2", as the firefighters call it, has not progressed for more than 48 hours after having ravaged 7,400 ha of pines.
“The fire did not progress significantly overnight,” said the Gironde prefecture in a press release this Saturday morning, adding that the situation “seems to be stabilizing” and that “the firefighters are working to treat the outskirts of the fire ".
#FiresGironde |
Update at 8:30 a.m.
▶️ no fire progression tonight thanks to the significant resources committed
✅ 7️⃣7️⃣ #Austrian Firefighters arrived overnight and 1️⃣4️⃣6️⃣ Polish expected in the afternoon #RescEU
➕ info 👉 https://t. co/l91RaUwhPt pic.twitter.com/hH7gpRXzZh
– Prefect of New Aquitaine and Gironde (@PrefAquitaine33) August 13, 2022
In terms of resources, a thousand firefighters were still mobilized, supported by German, Romanian and Polish colleagues.
“Last night, 77 Austrians and 14 vehicles joined the Hostens camp,” details the Gironde prefecture.
Read alsoGiant fire in Gironde: will the rain finally fall this weekend?
This Friday evening, the inhabitants of certain sectors of the Landes municipalities of Moustey and Saugnac-et-Muret were authorized to return to their homes, and, on this Saturday classified as "red" by Bison futé, the authorities decided to reopen the A63 , which connects Bordeaux to Spain, closed since Wednesday on a portion of 20 km.
The Morbihan fire partly "contained"
In Brittany, a fire destroyed nearly 300 ha in the Brocéliande forest west of Rennes, where it broke out overnight from Thursday to Friday.
This Saturday morning, the firefighters are "in the process of containing it", reports Ouest-France, even if they had to face "a very virulent resumption of fire" during the night.
They informed the local daily that if the balance sheet remained at 300 ha burned, the fire had still crossed 600 ha.
The firefighters also said they were optimistic given the weather conditions expected this Saturday in Brittany, the wind having died down.
The “fixed” fire in Ardèche
In Ardèche, the fire, which ravaged at least 320 ha in Lagorce, has been "fixed", the department prefecture announced on Friday afternoon.
The people who had been evacuated as a precaution had all returned to their homes by Thursday evening.
However, the firefighters remain mobilized this weekend to monitor possible recoveries.
A fire still in progress in the Jura
The Jura has been hit by two fires since the start of the week.
One of them was fixed on Friday, after ravaging 160 ha.
The second, which affects the sector located near the municipalities of Vescles, Cernon and Rupt was still in progress this Friday evening, according to the report of the prefecture, and several roads (D60, D99 and D03) were still closed.
For now, 500 ha have been burned in this area.
📍 Update at 11:30 p.m.:
📍 2 fires are underway in the #Jura
➡️ 1/ VESCLES / CERNON / RUPT municipal sector
5 additional hectares have burned today - the total burned area is 500 hectares.
pic.twitter.com/zgomCgNMJE
– Prefect of Jura (@Prefet39) August 12, 2022
In other departments – the Vosges, Vendée and Aveyron in particular – the fires of the last few days were already fixed this Friday.
The thunderstorms, expected this Sunday over a large part of the country, can represent a risk of resumption of fires if they are accompanied by strong gusts.
In France, in 2022, three times more hectares burned than the annual average of the last ten years.
