Investigation opened into the construction of a firewall by Benoît Bartherotte during the fires in Gironde

A preliminary investigation was opened by the Bordeaux public prosecutor's office into the circumstances of the installation of a firewall by businessman Benoît Bartherotte during the gigantic fire in Gironde in July, we learned on Thursday September 10 from the public prosecutor's office.

This investigation was opened at the end of August following the transmission of a report from the National Forestry Office (ONF) “concerning, essentially, facts of clearing without authorization of wood or forest of a public community”, according to the same source. A complaint filed in parallel by the anti-corruption association AC!!, pointing to a construction site launched without authorization, was attached to the procedure.

Benoît Bartherotte, president of the Association for the Defense of the Pointe du Cap Ferret, an upscale peninsula where he owns four hectares, will for his part file a complaint against X and the ONF for “endangering the lives of others”, according to his lawyer. On July 23, the day after the outbreak of the fire which ravaged 42,000 hectares for several days, the businessman publicly took the initiative of felling pine trees on a strip several hundred meters wide to erect this firebreak. Its construction site, part of which was carried out on land in the municipality of Lège-Cap-Ferret and the ONF, was suspended on July 26 at the request of the town hall, before resuming two days later after discussions with the authorities.

The anti-corruption association AC!! believes that the businessman “exempted” himself from compliance with the rules and then “twisted the arm” of the authorities to have his work authorized. Benoît Bartherotte responds that an old firewall at Cap Ferret “had not been maintained” and that the absence of a “sanitary isolation cordon between the town and the forest caused a major risk”. The businessman thus argues a “state of necessity” in the face of the flames which were then approaching the town of Lège-Cap-Ferret and the peninsula, from where the authorities evacuated tens of thousands of people.