In the night, current operations, mobilizing some 150 firefighters and 50 motorized vehicles, as well as 60 police officers and staff of the UAS.
A major fire broke out Thursday evening in the commune of Anglet in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques. The fire, which took in the pine forests of Pignada and Chiberta has devastated more than 100 hectares. At least seven homes have also been affected.
This fire spectacular with unknown origins, which was declared Thursday in the late afternoon, “is under control but it is complicated because there are still times one-off houses nearby,” announced the mayor of the basque city, Claude Olive, on Friday at around 1 in the morning.
firefighters mobilized this night
The fire department had to maintain “a high level of vigilance throughout the night” in this wooded area of 250 hectares located in the middle of the city, between the river Adour and the Atlantic ocean, and bordered in particular by a golf course and luxurious villas.
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At 3 o’clock, a spokesman of the prefecture told AFP that the fire had burned 100 hectares of forest and affected a total of 165 hectares with built-up areas more or less affected area. Seven houses were attacked by fire, of which three were burned to the ground, said Vincent Nicolas.
In the night, current operations, mobilizing some 150 firefighters and 50 motorized vehicles, as well as 60 police officers and staff of the UAS, according to the prefecture. The fire department of the Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne and les Landes have lent a strong hand to their colleagues in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and new reinforcements in the Haute-Garonne, Gers and Hautes-Pyrénées were to happen.
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Two aircraft water bombers from Bordeaux had ceased their rotations in the dark of the night after having completed 18 drops, according to the Security calendar. According to the prefecture, the rescue teams have helped the hospital care of 6 people, 5 police officers and 1 firefighter.
The secretary-general of the prefecture Eddie Bouttera has indicated to the press that a hundred people had been evacuated. Some had to be housed in a gymnasium in the city, where camp beds were installed, and the Red Cross has set up a reception centre where thirty people were taken care of.
The forest of Chiberta, in a real island of greenery within the urban agglomeration of Bayonne-Biarritz-Anglet densely populated, “is a large pine forest with high trees that are very difficult to reach,” explained Eddie Bouttera. “The weather conditions are not good at all, with a very low humidity, a strong hot wind and very high temperatures, it does not help us”, expressed his regret that the mayor of Anglet.
A part of the heritage “in smoke”
going Back to the north and the mouth of the Adour river, the fire was particularly consumed with the ecological park Izadia and his house, according to Claude Olive. “It is a part of our environmental heritage that is gone up in smoke”, has pointed out (40 000 inhabitants). “I am sad and angry”.
Since the beginning of the evening, dozens of people have been forced to leave in emergency in their home, noted a correspondent of the AFP, which has seen people leave in a car with suitcases thrown on in a hurry in their vehicle.
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“In the bottom of my street, the fire approached the houses and they were very strong, it is all mounted in our cars,” said a resident to the correspondent of the AFP. “At 20: 30 everything was going well, and then at 20: 30, we were told ‘That everyone in the world so ! the tide has turned’, tells in tears a young girl evacuated from the apartment of her boyfriend. “I had flames ten meters ! Usually, here, there is never wind,” says the inhabitant of a house at end of street, on the edge of the forest.
The South-West has known Thursday, of very strong heat. Saint-Jean-de-Luz, not far from Anglet on the basque coast, has largely beaten its record of temperature with the 41.9 °C identified by Météo-France. Further north, in the Gironde, a forest fire had devoured Monday, more than 295 hectares of pine trees, fed by the summer drought.
Sainte-Cecile of Andorge, in the Gard, a dozen departures of fire are very close together also caused a fire, brought under control Thursday, devastated 20 hectares of Sainte-Cecile of Andorge. The track criminal is privileged by the investigators.