La Teste-de-Buch
Since Tuesday July 12, the fires in Gironde have destroyed more than 20,000 hectares of forest and led to the evacuation of 37,000 people.
Wednesday afternoon, a week after the start of the fires, the President of the Republic went there, to the command post of La Teste-de-Buch, then to Langon.
Arrived in the afternoon, Emmanuel Macron spoke at length with the firefighters, welcoming their
“honorable work”
and the absence of victims.
“You have collectively succeeded in limiting the damage,”
he congratulated them.
The head of the Gironde fire brigade, Marc Vermeulen, recalled the difficult conditions in which these extraordinary fires are fought: drought, heat wave, rotating winds and fire swings over several hundred meters.
“We are going on a summer marathon with a big ball on our feet”,
explained the firefighters to Emmanuel Macron.
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After greeting the police and the volunteers,
"the living forces of the nation",
the Head of State lingered with the evacuees and the owners of the campsites and restaurants of La Teste-de-Buch, devastated by the fire .
“We lost everything,”
one of the owners lamented, with tears in her eyes.
“We need financial and administrative help, we are very small and the file is complex,”
added Cédric Rocher, owner of Panorama, a campsite ravaged by flames.
“More protective rules”
“We will be there to support you,”
promised Emmanuel Macron, taking as an example the
“national measures”
deployed during the health crisis, in particular to ensure the wages of seasonal workers who find themselves unemployed.
"You are going to rebuild with new rules,"
he said.
Several campsites were in dispute with the State before the fire.
Regarding the future of the forest, of which 7,000 hectares have been reduced to ashes in La Teste-de-Buch, Emmanuel Macron promised a
"major national project"
to
"replant this forest"
, by mobilizing foresters, volunteers and especially the National Forestry Office (ONF), whose technicians have been working tirelessly for a week to guide firefighters in the woods and widen the firewalls.
The President of the Republic also called for a review of forest management, with
"more protective rules"
and
"long-term prevention"
against these fires.
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In front of Emmanuel Macron, the president of the department of Gironde, Jean-Luc Gleyze (PS), reiterated his demands:
“In the future, we will need to have air resources based here, in the massif of the Landes de Gascogne”,
he said, convinced that the fires would have been more quickly contained with planes nearby.
Lack of air assets
On Wednesday, more than 2,000 firefighters were still mobilized in Gironde, as well as six Canadair and two Dash planes.
Two private helicopters were also requisitioned on the orders of the President of the Republic, by decree, to help the ground teams.
Asked about the lack of air resources, Emmanuel Macron defended himself:
“We have a fleet of 22 planes.
It was enough the last years”
, before adding that it was necessary
“more”.
“It is a European reflection”
, he added, specifying that
“it is Europe which pays for our new means”.
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The flames have slowed their progression since the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
But Emmanuel Macron was cautious for the future:
"The coming weeks are going to be very hard,"
he said.
In Gironde, it will take several days to stabilize the two fires, while fire starts have been taking place every day in France for a week, especially in
“unusual” areas,
such as the Arrée mountains in Brittany on Monday.