FINISTERE FIRE. The fire which affects the Monts d’Arrée, in Brittany, is about to be brought under control, it was announced this Wednesday, July 20. In Brasparts (Finistère), we are already planning for the future.
[Mise à jour le 20 juillet à 11h57] Brittany should not experience the same fate as the southwest. While the fires in Gironde have ravaged more than 20,000 hectares of forest, the fire which strikes Finistère, and more precisely the Arrée mountains, is “under control” announced the prefecture, Wednesday July 20, 2022, two days after the start of the fire. If 1725 hectares have already been burned by the flames, the authorities are optimistic, the prefect Claire Maynadier reporting, in the morning, a “very favorable, very positive” situation. The blaze that destroyed part of the surroundings of Brasparts should not, a priori, turn into a mega fire with incessant advance. “The weather conditions are favourable. There is not too much wind, the temperature is low and we have visibility,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Boulic, who coordinates the 278 firefighters and 60 vehicles deployed to stop the fire.
The latter has already wreaked havoc. The Monts d’Arrée were hit hard, with the flames transforming the landscape into a place of desolation. Faced with the extent of the damage, the departmental council of Finistère should commit significant sums to restore this important massif of Brittany. The President of the department, Maël de Calan, got the message across yesterday during his trip to the Monts d’Arrée. “We are now going to get down to repairing the site. The Monts d’Arrée will be treated and repaired quickly. The objective is that the moors and peat bogs be restored”, he said, adding: “The Departmental Council will not skimp on the means”.
The prefecture said Wednesday morning that 1,725 hectares of land and woods had burned, the equivalent of more than 1,600 football fields. The fire that broke out in Brittany, in the Monts d’Arrée (Finistère), has so far caused no casualties. No injuries are also to be deplored. However, just over 500 people had to leave their homes, according to the latest count announced by the Finistère prefecture mid-morning on Tuesday. They were residents of Botmeur, a town north of Brasparts (see map below), as well as three surrounding hamlets. The damage concerns, for the moment, only the vegetation currently in the grip of the flames. No homes were affected by the fire. Several roads are closed, again this Wednesday morning, to traffic: the RD 764 from Commana to La Feuillée; the RD 785 from Roch Tredudon to Brasparts; the RD 11, from the Commana sector to the south of the RD764, the RD 30 and the RD 42 in the Saint-Rivoal, Saint Cadou and Botmeur sector.
Map of the fire in the Monts d’Arrée
The fire that has struck the Monts d’Arrée since Monday July 18, 2022 therefore broke out in the town of Brasparts, in Finistère, located 50km east of Brest, in the heart of the Armorique regional park. The fire (in red on the map) continues to move due to the gusts of wind expected during the day on Tuesday. If firefighters are trying to limit the spread of the fire in Finistère, the swirling winds have allowed the flames to spread. “The fire started south of the Chapel of Mont-Saint Michel de Brasparts and is spreading north, west and east,” said the sub-prefect of Châteaulin, Claire Maynadier, on Tuesday.
Images of the fire in Brittany
In Brittany, the flames also spread through the vegetation. Several images make it possible to realize the extent of the fire, but also the damage it causes, broadcast in particular by local journalists from daily newspapers West France and Telegram.
What is the origin of the fire in the Monts d’Arrée?
Why did a fire in turn break out in Brittany? With the period of high heat, the authorities had warned of the very high risk of fires starting in France, calling for vigilance. Is it a human fault or not that triggered the appearance of the flames in the Monts d’Arrée? For the time being, the prefecture of Finistère indicates that the cause is not yet known and no lead seems to be favored at this stage.