Δημοσιεύθηκε: Παρασκευή 22 / 7 / 2022 , 2:10 από news_room

Ο Πρόεδρος Μακρόν επισκέφθηκε το Ζιρόντ – Η Γαλλία αντιμετωπίζει σοβαρό καύσωνα με «ασυνήθιστες» πυρκαγιές στο Ζιρόντ

Macron in Gironde:
France has been facing a severe heatwave with “unusual” wildfires in Gironde department. Although reduced, they are still not under control.
Since last week, wildfires have been set forests ablaze in the southwest part of the country, in Gironde department. This region is particularly known for its gigantic pine forests. Each year, thousands of tourists come there to spend their holidays, in campings near the Dune du Pilat – now five of them have been reduced to ashes, including the famous “Camping des Flots Bleus” from the well-known French film trilogy Camping.

The first fire, in Landiras, has devastated more than 13 500 hectares. The second one, in La Teste-de-Buch (near Arcachon), has devastated 7 000 hectares. In total, 36 750 people have been forced to move from those places for their safety – including inhabitants and tourists. “We grabbed our vanity case, our dog, our documents, and we left” tells Chantal, a tourist, to the daily Le Monde.

A man was arrested earlier this week, accused of being the responsible of the fire of Landiras. On Wednesday, the judicial court of Bordeaux freed him. “Investigations are still going on”, the public prosecutor’s department said.

On Wednesday morning, Marc Fesneau, Minister of Agriculture, declared that “the President of the Republic will head to Gironde this afternoon”, while quoting “exceptional” phenomenon to qualify the fires. The President wants to “stand beside the firemen, the civil security personnel, law enforcement, elected officials and all those mobilized”, the Elysée Palace said in a release. According to the latest weather forecasts of Météo France, the “high temperatures will only affect the south-eastern quarter of the country”.

“The fire made very little progress overnight. No new evacuation. No new casualties. Significant land and air resources are still mobilized on the fire front”, the prefect of Nouvelle-Aquitaine said in a tweet this morning. Deputy prefect Ronan Léostic said that he was “reasonably optimistic” about the evolution of the fires in Gironde. “We remain cautious” added the deputy prefect of Langon, Vincent Ferrier.

Yesterday, at the National assembly during the weekly “Questions to the government”, Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, was criticized about the government’s management of the fires. “We have the largest European firefighting air fleet. Let’s rejoice that there are no deaths”, he said.
The smoke of the fires could be smelt in Paris and in eastern regions of France.

On Monday, the country beat temperature records, especially in Britany – a region known to be relatively chill even during summer. 42° Celsius were observed in Brest.
In La Teste-de-Buch, President Emmanuel Macron thanked several firemen for their contribution.

Adrien Fillon for adologala.gr,  source: LeMonde.Fr