The fire, which devours “ten soccer fields every hour” and has forced the eviction of 10,000 people, forced this morning to close the Biriatou border and left hundreds of truckers trapped in a 7-kilometer queue until noon
The Landes and the Gironde are burning and the situation is extremely serious. This is reflected in the faces of the municipal officials in both areas, who have been in suspense for two days due to a fire that started in several areas and that everything indicates that it was caused. Be that as it may, concern is growing because the heatwave that also affects the south of France and the strong southerly wind make it impossible to control the flames that have already devoured 6,800 hectares.
The device to try to control this fire is brutal. There are more than 1,100 firefighters working on the ground, 7 seaplanes and 3 helicopters, and reinforcements are expected, according to Macron, “from various European countries.” At mid-morning, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne a Hostens arrived in the area to follow the operation ‘in situ’. “We went from two to nine air resources and by the end of the week there will be eleven,” she has promised. In fact, she has announced that four planes from the EU firefighting fleet will be sent to France from Greece and Sweden. And firefighters from Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania are on the way.
“This fire is a monster with a brain. It has a behavior that could be defined as tactical, ”says the prefect of the area, Martin Gespereau. According to his data, the calls advance at breakneck speed: “About ten soccer fields every hour.” To this has contributed that the vegetation and the soils are particularly dry after a month without rain. It complies with the dramatic rule of 30: the thermometer reads more than 30 degrees, there is less than 30% humidity and the wind is around 30 kilometers per hour.
Queues at the Biriatou border
Some 10,000 people have been evicted, according to the latest reports from the French authorities, and 16 homes have been completely burned to the ground in the city of Belin-Béliet, near the A-63 motorway, which is taken from the border with Gipuzkoa and which It has been reopened to heavy traffic this afternoon after up to 7 kilometers of truck queues accumulate. Yesterday they reached 9.
Traffic that wants to go to the neighboring country is concentrated at this point, as well as traffic that wants to take the tracks towards Navarra. Of course, the left lane has been clear at all times for the rest of the cars. The opening of the border has been done after consulting with the French authorities, but the retentions continue. As a preventive measure, the Ertzaintza has restricted the circulation of heavy vehicles on the A-1 from kilometer 385, at the height of San Millán (Álava) and towards Irún. This fact is causing withholdings in the area.
The one that is still cut is the A-63 cut in Hossegor. There, the French government recommends trucks to take the A-64 towards Pau to later join the A-65 and A-62 to Bordeaux. Junction 9, exit Saint-Geours-de-Maremne, in the direction of Baiona-Bordeaux also remains closed to all vehicles, while lorries must leave the A-63 at Biriatou. In any case, it is not ruled out that during the day this Thursday and Friday some alternative routes established due to the fire will be modified, reports the French newspaper ‘Sud-Ouest’.
The fire, from space. /
This is the least of the problems for the French, although not for the Basques who spend the month of August there or who planned to go during the long weekend this weekend. To which is added that there are campsites and summer residences evicted. The French emergency services have set up several centers in the municipalities of Salles, Saint-Symphorien and Le Barp to accommodate part of the evacuees from the towns of Mano, Moustey and Saugnac-et-Muret.
More than a thousand firefighters are working to extinguish the flames, supported by a strong air team. /
47,000 hectares burned this summer
Today it is also assumed that the day will be complicated. There is an orange alert for high temperatures and the south wind will continue to blow. In addition, there is no water forecast before Sunday. “The ‘weather’ is extremely unfavorable,” says Gespereau. Today the mercury will reach 40 degrees. And what is worse, “the fire has spread everywhere”, supports the director of the Gironde firefighters, Marc Vermeulen.
It so happens that this fire is the resumption of another that already affected the area a month ago and that affected 14,000 hectares. Likewise, there are several wounded troops of varying degrees due to the virulence of the flames. Among them, a firefighter suffered serious burns to his legs and face, although he is out of serious condition.
Seven seaplanes and two helicopters are working from the air to extinguish the flames as soon as possible, although the weather forecast is unfavourable. /
For all these reasons, the local authorities have asked the inhabitants “not to go to the fire area so as not to interfere with the action of the emergency services”, while they have requested “caution”. The entire Gironde department is under ‘RED’ surveillance reinforced by the risk of forest fires due to weather conditions.
This summer will go down in history in France for the number of fires that the firefighting services have had to deal with. Last night there were eight more active in the areas of Maine-et-Loire, Jura, Drôme, Aveyron, Isêre and Lozère. In total, more than 47,000 hectares have been burned this year in the neighboring country, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), which has comparable statistics since 2006. This multiplies the annual average of the previous fifteen years. In 2019, 43,602 hectares had been burned throughout the year.
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