More than 230 firefighters have intervened in the Landes since Saturday afternoon to fight two fires that have destroyed at least 80 hectares of pine forest, without causing any victims, in the sectors of Mimizan and Seignosse, where the authorities have ordered evacuations preventive measures, announced the Landes prefecture.
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In Mimizan, the fire which has burned 56 hectares of forest and mobilized more than 100 firefighters since 4:00 p.m. in this sparsely populated area "
is now contained
", announced the prefecture in its latest situation update. According to the prefect Cécile Bigot-Dekeyzer, "
about twenty caravans of travelers located nearby were evacuated as a precaution and reinstalled on land in Mimizan
", or about twenty people according to the firefighters.
The other fire, which broke out later in the afternoon, 80 km away between Seignosse and Soustons, burning between 30 and 40 hectares, was on the other hand "
still in progress
" shortly before midnight and was still mobilizing 130 firefighters, according to the prefecture. On this site near the white pond, the situation was considered "
more delicate
" by the firefighters, their intervention being complicated by the configuration of the places, partly inaccessible, with "
atypical reliefs and marsh areas
", specified an officer of the Landes firefighters contacted by AFP. "
A restaurant, eleven houses and a campsite (34 people) were evacuated as a precaution
", according to the press release from the prefecture.
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Two canadairs flying from the south-east, first intervened in Mimizan before heading in the evening to Seignosse.
In total, around forty gendarmes were mobilized to secure the surroundings of the two disasters.
The RD 189 has been cut off on the Etang Blanc sector.