Fire in the Landes: the situation is developing favorably after three days of fighting

After three days of intense fight against the flames, “the situation is evolving rather favorably” in the Landes forest, where the Luglon fire did not experience a “major resurgence” during the night from Saturday to Sunday, indicated the prefect of the department, Gilles Clavreul, without being definitive.

“Without major recovery”

If the long-awaited rain never came, apart from a few drops at the start of Saturday evening, people were relaxed on Sunday morning and the smiles returned to the village hall where the volunteers were busy, serving the breakfast buffet to the firefighters: “It was calmer, I have the impression,” slips one of them.

An impression confirmed by the prefect of Landes during his morning press briefing: “The situation is developing rather favorably. The night was active, of course, for the firefighters, but without any major recovery,” he declared. “We also reassessed the entire perimeter of the surface covered by the flames, it is 1,700 hectares”, compared to nearly 1,600 estimated on Saturday. But “this does not reflect a clear evolution, it is we who reassessed the envelope”, thanks to the mapping work carried out at night by drones, he added.

Preferred ground work

The information collected by the drones also made it possible to establish that the main fire, which started from Luglon on Thursday afternoon, and the second fire, which started on Saturday shortly before dawn from a burst of fire towards the village of Garein, had joined together, which reduces the number of edges to be treated. With humidity which “remains at interesting levels” and falling temperatures (28°C expected in the afternoon compared to 40°C at the start of the fire on Thursday), the 550 firefighters mobilized will benefit from “more favorable conditions for working” on Sunday, according to the state representative.

While two Dashes, four Canadairs and the heavy Chinook helicopter loaned by Australia took turns constantly in the sky on Saturday, “there will undoubtedly be much fewer rotations” on Sunday. “It’s a rather good sign” because the emergency services will “prioritize work on the ground”, mentions the prefect of Landes. “We are very cautious, there is still a lot of work ahead of us, but we have had a favorable development compared to yesterday,” he concluded.

“We can’t talk about returning home”

However, it is still too early to authorize the return of the 650 evacuees, mainly to Luglon: “For the moment the areas are not safe, we cannot talk about returning home unfortunately,” added the prefect.