A fire, particularly early for the tip of Brittany, destroyed Wednesday evening about five hectares of vegetation in a fir forest of Saint-Goazec (Finistère) but was "controlled" in the evening, according to the prefecture.
The origin of the fire that affected this town near the mountains of Arrée, where more than 2,000 ha of moors had been ravaged by flames last summer, remains undetermined and the gendarmerie has been seized, said the prefecture of Finistère.
Fire situation update in St Goazec at 22:45
Fire under surveillance.
Fire in progress in Tréméven: fire fixed
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— Prefect of Finistère (@Prefet29) June 7, 2023
The fire broke out late Wednesday afternoon "in a large fir forest", about 2 km from the village of Saint-Goazec, and no home was threatened, explained to AFP Jean-Pierre Legris, deputy mayor in charge of security.
It "spread very quickly at the beginning in particular because of an unfavorable wind and threatened 80 ha of forest", which required the intervention of air means, explained the prefecture.
"So early it's still weird"
A water bomber helicopter from Bordeaux made eight drops to help firefighters deployed on the ground who had managed to control the flames on all sectors shortly after nightfall. Four forest fire intervention groups (GIFF) spent the night on site to fight against possible revivals.
Firefighters were carrying out Thursday morning operations of "drowning", in particular to prevent the peat present in the ground from feeding a resumption of the flames, said Jean-Pierre Legris. According to him, wildfires are rare but not exceptional in this town, very wooded, and where "the vegetation is very dry" currently. According to Météo France records, there has been no precipitation in the Quimper area since May 15.
"We have already had several large fires but so early it's still weird," says Jean-Pierre Legris. In March 2014, 30 ha of brush had been destroyed, according to the firefighters of Finistère.
The "forest weather" service launched on June 1 to alert the population to the risk of fire starts only forecast a "low" risk in the department of Finistère for Wednesday.