August 15: many fireworks canceled due to the risk of fires

August 15 promises to be less festive this year.

Faced with drought and the risk of fires, many fireworks scheduled for Sunday or Monday have been canceled.

At least thirty prefectures have indeed taken orders banning fireworks in their department for this long weekend of August 15.

It includes the four Breton departments (Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan), as well as Bouches-du-Rhône, Landes, Aveyron, Lot-et-Garonne, Creuse, Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, Loire, Haute-Loire, Drôme, Ardèche, Dordogne, Vosges, Moselle, Bas-Rhin, Aisne, Mayenne, Charente, Haute-Marne, Savoie, Rhône, Haute-Saône or even the four Auvergne departments of Allier, Cantal, Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme.

In Haute-Garonne, fireworks have been banned in the districts of Toulouse and Muret.

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In Gironde, a similar decree was issued, with one exception.

"

, ”says the prefecture.

Government guidelines

The Pyrénées-Atlantiques have also banned fireworks on August 15, except for those that have been previously declared to the prefecture by the organizers.

The organizing town halls - subject to an obligation to declare at least one month before the fire - are therefore free to maintain their pyrotechnic show if they wish.

This is the case in Biarritz, for example.

Same thing in Isère, in the Haut-Rhin, in the Somme or in Saône-et-Loire.

In Seine-Maritime and Eure, only pyrotechnic shows fired by professional pyrotechnicians have been authorized.

In Haute-Savoie, they can stand if they are fired more than 200 meters from a wooded area and combustible natural spaces.

In Vendée, if the prefecture has not issued a ban, it has sent a letter to the town halls of the department to ask them to postpone or even cancel the fireworks planned for this weekend.

Several municipalities have decided to follow this recommendation, for example La Tranche-sur-Mer, Notre-Dame-de-Monts or Apremont.

Everywhere else in France, municipalities have made the choice to cancel themselves, for example in Loire-Atlantique, in Marne or in Ardennes.

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Prefectures that ban fireworks displays are actually following government guidelines.

On Friday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote to the prefects to ask them to "

" or even cancel the traditional pyrotechnic shows of August 15, due to "

" caused by drought .

.

A historic drought which has caused the start of many large-scale fires in France in recent weeks, burning thousands of hectares.