Bordeaux
Fire in La Teste and Landiras.
Figure Data
Sunday evening, around 1,200 firefighters were preparing to fight, for the sixth consecutive night, against the flames in Gironde.
In Landiras, in the south of the department, the fire has ravaged more than 7,500 hectares since Tuesday.
70 kilometers to the west, near the Dune du Pilat at La Teste-de-Buch, around 3,900 hectares of 2,000-year-old forest have been reduced to ashes.
Around the two fires, the same landscape: rows of charred pines for miles, smoke escaping from the sandy soil and exhausted firefighters, sometimes sleeping on the grass.
"We have been fighting against these two extraordinary fires for almost a week
," summed up Marc Vermeulen, director of SDIS 33, on Saturday.
We will be confronted on Monday with the cumulative effect of high temperatures and a renewed wind in the evening.
Marc Vermeulen, director of SDIS 33
No casualties have been reported to date.
A restaurant, three houses and cabins were destroyed in Cazaux, near La Teste-de-Buch.
Towards the Dune du Pilat, the firefighters prevented the flames from reaching the campsites located along the dune.
In Guillos, in the south of Gironde, a barn and a house burned down.
Sunday, at the end of the day, the authorities judged the situation
“not at all favorable”
in Teste-de-Buch and
“very unfavorable”
in Landiras.
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Since the start of the fires on Tuesday, firefighters have faced unfavorable weather conditions: rotating winds, the fire sometimes creating its own wind, dry pines and oaks, high temperatures, with peaks around 40 ° C expected on Monday .
To escape the flames and smoke, more than 16,000 people have left their homes in the past six days.
Around La Teste-de-Buch, some 6,000 campers were evacuated overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, then 4,000 residents and vacationers from Cazaux on Thursday afternoon
.
That day, within hours, the blue sky darkened, covered with thick smoke.
"It was unbreathable
, says Philippe, evacuated with his son and grandchildren,
there were pine bark ashes falling."
This resident of Cazaux describes a great fright:
“When we arrived on the road, there was a big traffic jam up to the exit roundabout.
We said to ourselves “that’s it, we’re going to go there”.
On the Landiras side, nearly 6,000 people have had to leave their homes since Tuesday.
Convoys supervised by the forces of order make it possible to fetch animals or medicines.
Sunday evening, none of the evacuated areas were accessible.
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To find accommodation, many of the victims were able to count on those around them, but also on the solidarity of the inhabitants.
Lists of contacts are circulating on social networks.
The town hall of La Teste-de-Buch, which linked individuals with a free room with the evacuees, even had to curb certain outbursts of solidarity:
“Thank you to all of you for your solidarity but for the individuals, for now, there are no additional needs,”
she posted on her Facebook page on Sunday morning.
A long night
Residents also take turns carrying food and water to the firefighters.
In Landiras, the multipurpose hall has been requisitioned.
Fire soldiers unfold their cots there, others sleep outside on a mattress.
Volunteers come to support them.
Christelle, from Landiras, provided night duty to the firefighters:
“They come back exhausted, blackened, these are difficult times for them
,” she notes.
Sunday, four Canadair and two Dash planes, which spray the forest with a product to delay fires, took turns in Gironde.
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The department has had to deal with 122 fire starts since Tuesday.
For the president of Gironde, Jean-Luc Gleyze (PS), the area lacks means:
“The financing of the SDIS depends on a 2002 law, based on the Gironde population of that year.
But we have gained 400,000 inhabitants since.”
In addition, Jean-Luc Gleyze and the president of the region, Alain Rousset, deplore the absence of Canadair in Gironde.
When the fire started on Tuesday, the planes arrived from Nîmes.
“We can think that if they had been nearby, the fire could have been brought under control more quickly”,
assures the president of the department.
“The next forty-eight hours are going to be very important. We will be confronted Monday with the cumulative effect of high temperatures and an upsurge in the wind in the evening, ”
said Marc Vermeulen.
Late Sunday afternoon, the firefighters faced a
“very violent”
resumption of fire south of the Dune du Pilat.
The flames jumped the departmental road to reach the ocean beaches of La Lagune and Petit Nice.
"We had fire swings up to more than a kilometer"
, lamented Lieutenant-Colonel Chavatte while preparing, again, for a long night.
