IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES – The flames have ravaged 650 hectares since Thursday, and the fire remains under close surveillance.
The fire which has ravaged 650 hectares of forest since Thursday in the Cévennes, in the north of the Gard, is finally under control, announced Sunday July 10 the firefighters, who however maintain a light surveillance system on site. “The fire is under control. But we continue to actively monitor the stumps that are still burning inside and could start to blaze again under the effect of the wind.“, indicated to AFP the commander Bernard Scotto, in charge of the communication of the firefighters of Gard.
Sunday was a quiet day across the department, where only two small alerts were reported and quickly dealt with, the officer said. On the Bordezac fire,we went around the area and there were a lot fewer reignites“, specified the communication officer, according to whom the remaining work, aiming to intervene quickly to extinguish the still active embers, could continue over several days taking into account the “zone circumference“to deal with and difficulties on the ground”which covers two valleys“.
For all these reasons, “we will maintain a staff of 140 firefighters for the night. But we plan tomorrow morning to release two extra-departmental columns representing more than a hundred men“, he specified.
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In the morning, the spokesperson for the Gard firefighters explained to AFP that the priority of the 350 men still on site was to treat “meter by meter the entire circumference of the fire, at the edge between what has burned and what has not burned, where you can have fire outbreaks“. He had also expressed his fear that in the middle of the 650 hectares burned there were still unburned groves which ignited and produced sparks which could then reach the green zone.
3000 liters of water airlifted
Leaving the hamlet of Bordezac around 5 p.m. Thursday, this disaster mobilized up to 950 men, but there were no casualties. On Saturday, the firefighters had air support, in particular for “treat inaccessible hotspots with surgical helicopter strikes”to use the expression of Lieutenant-Colonel Agrinier.
During the day, the firefighters also used a Heliskid, a 3,000 liter water tank that can be lifted by helicopter into an area inaccessible to vehicles. Equipped with a motor to send pressure into the pipes, this unique tool in France, which only the Gard firefighters have, has thus enabled them to deal as closely as possible with certain hot spots that are difficult to access.
In addition to this fire, the Gard department, hit daily by numerous fire starts – more than 30 on Friday, 28 on Thursday – was generally placed under close surveillance. A fire also broke out on the outskirts of Alès on Saturday evening around 10:30 p.m., according to Free lunch. The outbreak of fire was triggered by “several firecrackers” drawn at the end of the evening according to the sub-prefect of Alès quoted by BFMTV. “Fire fixed. No casualties. No homes affected”Gard firefighters said on Twitter around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
On Saturday, in Saint-Christol-lès-Alès, the massive commitment of three forest fire intervention groups supported by a water bomber helicopter saved a campsite and a business park from leisure activities threatened by a plant fire outbreak and to limit the disaster to 5,000 m2.
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Thursday, another fire had ravaged 230 hectares towards the town of Générac, in the south of the department. This same town had been affected by a serious fire in August 2019, which had burned 800 hectares and caused the death of the pilot of a water bomber plane in an accident.