GIRONDE FIRES. The fire in Gironde which resumed in early August has been fixed since August 14, 2022 but has yet to be extinguished. The fire, which burned 7,400 hectares of forest, is not of criminal origin according to the prefecture.
The Landiras fires in Gironde are fixed, but many firefighters, several hundred, are mobilized to extinguish the flames. The hardest part is however done as announced by the prefecture of the department on Sunday August 14, five days after the start of the fire which burned 7,400 hectares of forest. The mission of firefighters is now to control, extinguish and prevent a new outbreak of fire. A difficult task given the area burned and peat fires, underground, difficult to spot and long to put out. It would also be the remains of embers from the great fire of Landiras which occurred in mid-July which would have triggered the start of the fire on August 9 according to the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office which explained on Tuesday August 16 that “no element allows to lean for a criminal origin”. On the other hand, with regard to the initial fire which burned nearly 14,000 hectares, the criminal thesis is well preferred and the investigation is still in progress.
While the fire is fixed and the extinguishing phase continues, the conditions again become favorable for the firefighters both to put out the fires and to fight new fires. On August 16, the prefect of the GirondeFabienne Buccio also indicated the lowering of the alert level to orange vigilance on forest fires explaining that “the weather forecasts indeed suggest more favorable conditions in the coming days. Little by little the troops of sappers – mobilized firefighters, in particular European reinforcements, should be revised downwards but the firefighters of Gironde remain on deck. Vigilance and treatment of the burnt areas should extend until October, already explained the director of the Departmental Service of Gironde Fire and Rescue, Marc Vermeulen, end of July.
What are the causes and origins of the fires in Gironde?
During the last press briefing on August 16, the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office ruled out the hypothesis of a criminal origin for the resumption of the fire in Landiras on August 9, contrary to what the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, and the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, August 11 and 10. Since the first fires, which occurred in July in this sector, the conditions were met for the fire to resume quickly: the ground is very dry due to severe drought and the first fires. Added to this are peat fires that smolder between 50 and 80 cm below the surface of the formerly marshy soils. The risks of recovery are always a threat for firefighters.
The July fires, which broke out on Tuesday July 12 an hour apart, had different origins. That of Landiras, which resumed on August 9, was probably caused by an arsonist. The findings made by criminal identification technicians “accredit a deliberately malicious act”, said the Bordeaux prosecutor. The investigation for destruction by fire of wood, of forest which could cause damage to people was entrusted to the Langon research brigade. Monday, July 18, a man was taken into custody and questioned. Suspected of being the cause of certain fires, but not of the main fire, according to France Bleu Gironde, he was finally released and is exonerated on Wednesday July 20. In La Teste-de-Buch, the cause was accidental, since a broken down vehicle had caught fire.
Fixed at the end of July, the fire in Landiras (Gironde) started again a few kilometers away, during the day of Tuesday August 9, before gaining in intensity in the evening. Sunday August 14, the prefecture announced that “the fire is now considered to be held” before declaring it as fixed after burning 7,400 hectares of forest. Faced with the risk of resumption of fire, the firefighters remain mobilized. 397 firefighters from all over Europe (Germany, Poland, Austria, Greece, Italy) to fight the fire came as reinforcements on August 12 and the treatment of the edges, the resumption of fire and the civil engineering work are continuing to put out the fire and prevent it from starting again.
Sunday August 14, all the inhabitants who had been evacuated, 8,000 in Gironde and 2,000 in the Landes, are authorized to return home. In the Landes, some had been able to return to their accommodation from Friday evening August 12.