“We are on a contained fire on its perimeter for the moment. It is not fixed, it is contained”, indicated the sub-prefect of Lesparre-Médoc, Fabrice Thibier during a press briefing on Wednesday evening.
“We have a wind which is loaded with humidity this afternoon and which has surely led to the spread being weak”, added the sub-prefect, warning against the “numerous resumptions of fire, on land which is green, in the forest” and against “a wind that continues to blow in gusts” during the day.
For the night, a “potentially not very virulent” wind and “average temperatures” are expected, said Gironde firefighter spokesman Thomas Couturier.
In total, 1,840 inhabitants, including a thousand evacuated during the day on Wednesday, had to urgently leave their homes in the two municipalities of Saumos and Sainte-Hélène, in this area of southern Médoc, between the seaside resort of Lacanau, on the Atlantic coast, and the Bordeaux conurbation.
Most have been relocated with relatives or about fifteen kilometers away, in the small town of Castelnau-de-Médoc (4,800 inhabitants), where civil protection and local volunteers have been organizing the reception of evacuees since Tuesday, in a room where a buffet, a giant screen, board games and many camp beds have been installed.
On site, Marlène, a mother present with her three children, her dog and guinea pigs explains that she “prepared a small suitcase” the day before, because “I had the example of the fires of this summer in mind. “.
“I admit that we are not very serene all the same. It approaches every day, with the winds which turn so I do not know what it gives, so we stress”, slips to AFP Corinne, another elderly evacuee 45 years old.
Throughout the day, a thousand firefighters helped by teams from the Defense of Forests Against Fires (DFCI) and by six canadairs, three Dash planes and two water bomber helicopters dealt with “21 outbreaks of fire”, to slow down this fire which is ravaging this sparsely populated area, but “did not progress towards Saint Helena” on Wednesday.
Since Monday, 3,700 hectares have been burned, in addition to some 30,000 already ravaged since July by three gigantic fires in the department, in La Teste-de-Buch and Landiras twice, which occurred in a summer marked by a historic drought.
A judicial inquiry has been opened into the origin of the fire. “No track is ruled out even if the criminal thesis is privileged”, according to the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office. “An investigation team is on site. All options are on the table. We must be careful about the rumors that run around,” said the sub-prefect for his part.
In the south in the region, in the Basque Country, “in a context of exceptional drought”, a fire burned about fifteen hectares of the border massif of La Rhune, mobilizing around forty firefighters, a water bomber helicopter Spanish as well as three Canadairs and two Dash planes arrived as reinforcements, indicated in the evening the prefecture of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
According to the authorities, “the fire is located in an inaccessible place but with a very weak progression and the weather remains favorable”.
During the day, two other fires also burned ten hectares in Saugon, 50 km north of Bordeaux, before being quickly fixed, indicated the prefecture of Gironde in a press release, recalling that the Saumos fire “remains active, in particular in due to high winds”.
This new blaze occurred in a context of high heat, with a monthly record recorded Monday in Bordeaux (37.5 degrees), unheard of in September since 1987 according to Météo-France.
It brings back sad memories to the inhabitants: a gigantic fire (3,500 hectares) had already ravaged the sector in July 1989, between Lacanau and Le Porge.
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