The probably arson attack that has covered an area of 300 hectares since Sunday in the pine forest in the town of Mano in the Landes, on the border of the Gironde, “is fixedannounced the prefecture on Tuesday August 2 in a press release.
A hundred firefighters, 24 fire engines and 13 gendarmes, were still mobilized on Tuesday to monitor this fire “contents” but “still active“. Two roads remained cut off to traffic in this area of the Landes de Gascogne forest, said the prefecture.
Residents allowed to return to their homes
According to the Mont-de-Marsan prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation for “destruction by dangerous means» and favors «strongly» the criminal track, the fire started after two fire starts a few minutes apart on Sunday late afternoon in an area at the edge of the road accessible by vehicle. No suspect has been arrested at this stage, during the investigation entrusted to the Parentis-en-Born gendarmerie research brigade.
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An important device had been deployed since Sunday at the end of the day to control the fire with the presence of 395 firefighters at the height of the fire, supported by two Canadairs and a helicopter which carried out “multiple drops“. Some of the forty residents evacuated on Sunday – around fifteen houses in different hamlets – were authorized to return to their homes. About ten days ago, this village of 130 inhabitants, located a few kilometers from the neighboring Gironde, had to be evacuated for the first time as a precaution against the advance of the fire which ravaged the Landiras sector in South Gironde.
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The Gironde, scene of two firesoutsized” which devoured nearly 21,000 hectares of forest in 12 days in July in Landiras and La Teste-de-Buch in the Arcachon basin, went back to red alert on Monday for forest fires (level 4 out of 5). The Landes are they maintained in orange vigilance, that is to say at a level “raised» of 3 out of 5, prohibiting the circulation of vehicles, walks and silvicultural activities in the forest zone during the day.
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