In Hostens
The Girondin firefighters had been accustomed for a month to welcoming reinforcements from Hérault, Bouches-du-Rhône, Lyon or Marne.
In Hostens, where the fire resumed violently on Tuesday afternoon, they now share the rear base of the command post with 77 Romanian firefighters and 64 German Feuerwehr.
Activated at the request of the government, the European civil protection mechanism allows France to benefit from the aid of seven European countries: 360 firefighters and around a hundred vehicles to reinforce the thousand firefighters already mobilized in Gironde, as well as six Canadair for all the fires in progress on the territory.
“We have three big construction sites
(Landiras, Hostens and La Teste-de-Buch, editor’s note)
, fire starts every day and a little material damage,
recalls the general controller and fire chief of Gironde, Marc Vermeulen.
Machines and men are always beneficial.”
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The German teams arrived in the evening of Thursday with 14 vehicles and were engaged on the ground the next day with some of the Romanian firefighters.
They will be supported over the weekend by Polish and Austrian reinforcements.
“We are there to help our French colleagues, we sympathize with the population confronted with fire”,
indicates Colonel Cristian Buhaiànu, head of the Romanian detachment.
The firefighter has already faced similar fires in Romania
, "but not as big"
.
"We are eager to intervene and we are ready to do so,"
he said a few minutes before his first mission.
"This is Europe"
Behind the command post, in Hostens, a team of German firefighters is also preparing to go on fire.
Troops arrive from the Bonn area.
“Last year, I intervened in Greece,
entrusts one of them,
when colleagues have a problem, the other countries come in reinforcement.
That's what Europe is."
In the field, teams have to be coordinated.
Foreign firefighters are briefed by the French command.
“The only problem is knowing the capabilities of their vehicles.
You can't run just any truck in the peat”
, explains Marc Vermeulen.
“There is no miracle technology”,
he continues.
From a technical point of view, European vehicles resemble those used in France.
The same for the six planes from Greece, Italy and Sweden.
As of Friday, the two Greek water bombers, stationed at Bordeaux-Merignac airport, intervened on the fire of "Landiras 2".
They are deployed alongside two Italian aircraft.
“The planes are equivalent, the procedures are harmonized and the flight capacities identical, which makes the organization very easy”
, specifies Claire Kowalewski, firefighter of the European crisis center.
In flight, the French planes remain leaders of the patrol: during the dropping operations, it is necessary to protect the troops on the ground and to obtain their authorization before opening the water tank.
“For language reasons, it is easier for the order to be received by a French leader
,” she explains.
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Communication remains a major challenge.
Dressed in a blue vest sewn with the stars of the European flag, Captain Benoît Isner is the link between the groups.
“My role is to grease the wheels and integrate foreign firefighters as well as possible into the system”,
assures the liaison officer.
The German, Polish, Austrian and Romanian firefighters must leave between August 18 and 19.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, the fire did not progress but
“very severe risks of fire outbreak”
, fires installed in the basement which can emerge hundreds of meters further, persist.
On Friday, firefighters fought the flames during a scorching day marked by a drop in the level of humidity in the air.
At 5 p.m., the toll stood at 7,800 hectares burned in the Saint-Magne sector and the 10,000 evacuees had not yet been able to return to their homes.
