Wildfires in Gironde: Landiras fire extinguished

Wildfires in Gironde / The Landiras fire is “fixed” announces the prefect of Gironde Fabienne Buccio this Monday. All evacuated residents will be able to return home. The fire in the South-Gironde ravaged nearly 14,000 hectares in 12 days.

They will have ravaged 20,800 hectares of forest in about ten days. After the Teste-de-Buch, it is the turn of the Landiras fire to be fixed. The prefect of Gironde announced this Monday, July 25 during a press conference. “Be careful, the fires are fixed. They are not extinguished. This means that there are no longer any active outbreaks”, added Fabienne Buccio. Resumptions of fire remain but the areas where the flames are spreading are no longer progressing. All evacuated residents will return to their homes. This represents around 16,000 people in the South-Gironde.

20,8000 hectares destroyed

During this press point, Fabienne Buccio recalled the “twelve days of anguish and waiting” that the Girondins have just experienced but also the “twelve days of exemplary mobilization”. In La Teste, the flames ravaged “7000 hectares” of pines, indicated the prefect, 20,000 people had been evacuated. All have since returned to their homes. The Landiras fire started a little later on Tuesday July 12. “An investigation still in progress, it is up to the prosecution to comment on it” indicates Fabienne Buccio. The criminal track is favored by the investigators. A suspect was cleared last week.

The Landiras forest is different from that of La Teste even if it is also pine. “It is an exploited forest”, with a dispersed habitat and the presence of hamlets. “16,000 inhabitants have been evacuated” specified the prefect. They will be able to return home. “It’s a first step, a decisive step more”, rejoiced the mayor of Landiras Jean-Marc Pelletant, this Monday on franceinfo. Evacuated residents “will not be able to find what they had before,” he warned. “There, they have changed planets, the environment is totally different” because “the fire having passed through there, everything is burnt, everything is grilled”.

For 12 days, the two fires ravaged 20,800 hectares, the area of ​​twice Paris intra muros. “It will take several weeks and probably the autumn rains to say that the fires are out,” added SDIS 33 boss Marc Vermeulen. Soldiers are expected on Wednesday to scrape the floors. According to the firefighters, a fire is “fixed” when they think it will not progress any further. It is then “under control”, then “extinguished” and must then be “monitored”.

An “out of the ordinary” crisis

This crisis was “out of the ordinary” assures the prefect of Gironde: “By its duration, almost two weeks, by its magnitude, by the simultaneity of the two fires” explains Fabienne Buccio. They were “extremely difficult to control, reinforced by exceptional climatic conditions”. Indeed, the conditions were unfavourable, with high temperatures, changing winds and low rainfall which put the vegetation in a state of water stress.

The days from Friday July 15 to Monday July 18 were “marked by extreme conditions, temperatures over 40 degrees and gusts over 60 km / h”.

Colossal means

Fabienne Buccio indicates that “we mobilized land and air resources at the height of the crisis. Up to 3,000 firefighters from Gironde and 1,200 firefighters from 60 departments were mobilized”. A total of 1,250 firefighters were still on the ground this Sunday. “From day one, we had air assets. Two to eight water bombers, Canadairs or Dash, two water bomber helicopters and a helicopter from Sdis and army support for fire surveillance”, she added

The prefect recalled how “it was necessary to show imagination (…) by carrying out titanic and unprecedented work on firewalls and fallback zones”, “131 km of work was carried out out of the 152 km planned. work is still in progress.” On these two fires, Mr. Vermeulen specified that there were always “three columns of extra departmental reinforcements” as well as “air resources: two attack helicopters and two Canadair.”

New evacuations after forest fire in Gironde