After 11 days of exhausting fight against the flames, the fire which ravaged 7,000 ha of forest in La Teste-de-Buch, near the Arcachon basin, is "now fixed".
That of Landiras is not yet but no longer progressing.
Update on the situation.
More than 20,000 hectares ravaged
In total, these "mega-fires" have devoured nearly 21,000 ha of forest in Gironde since July 12 and forced more than 36,000 inhabitants or holidaymakers to evacuate their accommodation, including 6,000 holidaymakers evacuated from campsites in the very touristy dune. du Pilat which were then destroyed by the flames.
The fires caused no casualties, authorities said.
The Landiras fire is not fixed
In Landiras, about forty kilometers south of Bordeaux, the fire which burned 13,800 ha of forest is "not yet fixed", "because of the risk of resumption", specified the prefecture.
This fire is still considered “contained”.
"About thirty homes remaining active, the surveillance of this massif, the treatment of the edges and the resumption of fire as well as the civil engineering work are continuing", according to the press release.
"The situation continues to improve," said the prefecture.
More than a thousand firefighters still mobilized
Two Canadairs and two forest fire attack helicopters remain mobilized while 1,300 firefighters were still hard at work on Friday on the two sites, even if now "columns of extra-zonal firefighters are gradually returning to their department".
Read alsoFires in Gironde: “smokers” and active surveillance, the new battle of firefighters
According to firefighters, a fire is "fixed" when they think it will not grow any further.
It is then “controlled”, then “extinguished” and must then be “monitored”.
According to the prefect of Gironde Fabienne Buccio, who spoke on Friday evening, declaring these two fires “extinguished, that will be another matter, it will take some time”.
The nightmare of the evacuees
"All residents evacuated" preventively from La Teste-de-Buch are now "allowed to return to their homes, with the support of the national police", also announced the prefecture in a press release.
A little less than a third of the 16,000 people evacuated from municipalities in the Landiras sector have not yet received the green light to return.
But “the authorities continue to study sector by sector (their) possibilities of reintegration”, assures the prefecture.
VIDEO.
In Gironde, with the evacuees: "I did not think it would last so long"
Saturday afternoon, the inhabitants of four municipalities in the sector - Le Tuzan, Balizac, Saint-Léger-de-Balson and Saint-Symphorien (except five hamlets) - were able to reopen their shutters.
In the morning, it was those of Cazaux, a town of La Teste-de Buch evacuated on July 14, who had already been able to return to their homes.
The prefecture has also authorized boating again on the western part of Lake Cazaux-Sanguinet and in the southern pass of the entrance to the Arcachon basin.
Firefighters are still fighting in Finistère
Firefighting operations in the Monts d'Arrée focused on Saturday afternoon on the southern sector of the area where firefighters received reinforcement from a water bomber in the morning, according to the Finistère prefecture.
“The situation is under control in the North sector and under control in the South sector”, indicated in a situation update at 3 p.m., the prefecture, specifying that the operations received the reinforcement of a Dash water bomber plane. made available by the prefect of the Brittany region who arrived in the area on Saturday morning.
The Quimper prosecutor's office opened two investigations into these fires on Wednesday, including one for "crime of willful destruction by fire".
According to the prefecture, nearly 230 firefighters and 50 firefighting machines were still present on Saturday.
Fire fixed in Aude and Hérault
The fire that broke out on Friday afternoon in the Minervois was fixed and destroyed 150 ha in the Hérault and Aude.
Some 80 firefighters remained mobilized on Saturday "to deal with the last hot spots" in Aigne (Hérault) and Mailhac (Aude).
In total, 200 ha of vegetation were traversed by the fire and among them, 150 were completely burned, according to the firefighters.
More than 800 ha of natural space, two villages and a wine estate have also been spared thanks to the installation of a barrier of retardant products over three kilometers arranged by significant aerial means, added the relief.
Saturday, the risk of fire remained "high" in five massifs of the Hérault including the Minervois, indicated for its part the prefecture, advising against entering it after 11 a.m., in a department placed on heat wave alert at least until to Sunday, like a large south-eastern quarter of France.
