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• Direct fire in the Landes: the “very intense” fight by firefighters “will take a little more time”, according to the prefect
After a more favorable start to the night, the fire in progress since Thursday spread again at dawn on Saturday, announced Gilles Clavreul.
What you need to know
The large-scale fire which broke out on Thursday August 13 in Luglon (Landes) and which spread again on Saturday August 15 around 4:30 a.m. "is not yet fixed", assured Franceinfo the prefect of Landes, Gilles Clavreul. On the ground, 550 firefighters are still mobilized and the "very intense" fight of the firefighters "will take a little more time", he warns, while the fire has already covered 1,600 hectares. Follow our live stream.
A reactivation of the fire around 4:30 a.m. “The fire was progressing rather favorably” until then, explained Colonel Arnaud Fabre, director of Sdis des Landes, at the same press briefing. “It’s a complicated sector in terms of access for our resources. Which required committing a large part of our forces. They contained it with a lot of commitment.”
Significant resources committed. Around 3 p.m. on Friday, four Canadairs were again deployed to relay the Chinook CH-47D “mega-helicopter”, on loan from Australia, which had carried out the first drops in the morning. Around 550 firefighters are fighting this third major fire of the summer in the immense Landes massif.
A huge fire in Belgium. At least 1,650 hectares went up in smoke in the fire in a natural park in eastern Belgium, said a spokesperson for the Walloon authorities. This fire broke out in the middle of the day on Friday, in the Fagnes, a large wooded area popular with hikers and close to Germany. It spread quickly overnight. Faced with the risk posed by smoke, the village of Sourbrodt, in the east of the country, is threatened with evacuation.
franceinfo
#FIRES In the Landes, no less than 550 firefighters are currently fighting the fire in the Landes forest, which has affected nearly 1,600 hectares.
(GAIZKA IROZ / AFP)
update on the news
Here are the main news headlines:
• #CYBERATTACK The cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation after the cyberattack which made it possible to extract taxpayer and business data, affecting nearly 700,000 users of the tax administration.
• #FIRES Firefighters are focusing on the resumption of the fire that broke out at dawn in the Landes forest, taking advantage of lower temperatures to try to contain the fire which has already affected nearly 1,600 hectares. Around a hundred new evacuations have been declared.
• #MIDDLE EAST Israeli strikes left nine people dead, including women and children, in southern Lebanon. This is the deadliest death toll since agreements reached in June, which saw a decline in hostilities between Israel and the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah.
• #TRAFIC Bison Futé noted a peak of 712 km of cumulative traffic jams at the national level outside Ile-de-France, shortly before noon. The summer cross-country day was classified red, and even black in the direction of departures in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
#FIRES Soldiers are called in more and more often as reinforcements, while France is suffering large-scale fires. This is once again the case in the Landes, where a bulldozer from the 31st engineering regiment of Castelsarrasin is responsible for creating a track in the forest, in order to facilitate the firefighters' maneuvers and create firebreaks. “The regiment has already deployed units for fires in Gironde,” explains Captain Damien, interviewed by franceinfo. “I was present a little over a week ago in the Bordeaux area.”
#FIRES The large-scale fire hitting the Landes “is not yet fixed”, declares on franceinfo the prefect of the Landes, Gilles Clavreul. “We have small hopes for the weather,” he explains, hoping “that a little rain will fall” in the coming hours. “That would be the very good news of the evening.” In the meantime, two Canadairs and two Dashes are continuing their rotations in the sector impacted by the fire, particularly around Garein. In total, 650 people were evacuated in the department.
#FIRES In Belgium, the village of Sourbrodt is now threatened with evacuation in the face of advancing flames in the Fagnes natural park. It would be a "preventive evacuation at this stage, especially because there is a lot of smoke", a spokesperson for the Walloon authorities, Nicolas Yernaux, told AFP. “This is the biggest fire that Belgium has ever experienced,” have already declared the burgomasters (mayors) of the municipalities of Waimes and Jalhay, quoted by RTBF, during a speech in front of the crisis center installed in Vottem. More than 1,600 hectares went up in smoke.
#FIRES At least 1,650 hectares went up in smoke in the fire of a natural park in eastern Belgium, a spokesperson for the Walloon authorities announced to AFP. This fire broke out yesterday in the middle of the day, in the Fagnes, a large wooded area popular with hikers and close to Germany. It spread quickly overnight and is still growing. A lodge occupied by around sixty children was evacuated, reports RTBF, and the sky is completely opaque due to the smoke.
#FIRES Significant resources are still deployed in the Landes, where the fire started again last night in the Garein sector. “We are trying to use as many resources as possible to save as many homes as possible,” explains a firefighter. The soldiers came as reinforcements with earth-moving equipment, such as a bulldozer.
(FRANCE TELEVISIONS)
#FIRES Traffic is “gradually returning to normal” along the A75, where a section had been closed between Hérault and Aveyron. A fire was reported last night in the area, having covered 200 hectares. The flames started from a light vehicle early in the afternoon, then spread to the vegetation near Pégairolles-de-l'Escalette. In the evening, one lane in two had been reopened in the Millau-Montpellier direction, as well as the Pas de l'Escalette tunnel in both directions.
#FIRES Belgium is not spared from fires. Nearly 850 hectares have already been devastated in the Fagnes, a natural park near Germany. The fire broke out in the middle of the day yesterday, and spread quickly overnight. “Firefighting operations are continuing actively on the ground,” commented the governor of the province of Liège, Hervé Jamar, in a message published on Facebook. Reinforcements came from all over Belgium and even Germany.
#FIRES Some news of the fire in the Landes, where the fire started again around 4:30 a.m., near Garein. “The fire is rotating,” explains Mayor Philippe Sartre on franceinfo. “We still have significant means of fighting throughout the sector and Dash planes operating,” he adds, but it is “not completely won.” Around a hundred people were evacuated. “There are a few elderly people who need to be supported but (...) the operation went very well.” The latest report showed 1,580 hectares covered since Thursday, when the fire broke out in the neighboring town of Luglon.
