A measure taken when temperatures could reach “41 or even 42 degrees” in Gironde on Saturday.
The prefect of Gironde announced Thursday that she would ban “all public demonstrations outdoors or in non-air-conditioned premises” from Friday 2:00 p.m., after the classification of the department in heat wave red vigilance, a first in Gironde. The prefectures of the six other departments of New Aquitaine placed in red vigilance should take the same measure, which concerns for example sports meetings but not weddings, said Fabienne Buccio during a press conference.
Temperatures could reach “41 or even 42 degrees” in Gironde on Saturday, the expected peak of the heat wave before a drop in temperatures on Sunday, according to the South West interregional director of Météo-France Laurent Perron. The meteorologist cited as an “aggravating factor” the high level of minimum temperatures, which will not drop below 23 degrees overnight from Friday to Saturday in Gironde.
A truly “crisis situation”
Among the other measures to deal with this “crisis situation” and recorded in an order to be signed Thursday evening, the prefect of Gironde banned fireworks “until Monday morning” and burning. She also asked that, in these departments, the commemorations of the anniversary of June 18, 1940 scheduled for Saturday be shifted to Sunday and that the communities leave the “swimming pools, parks and gardens” open.
The commander of the Gironde firefighters, Marc Vermeulen, for his part explained that a Dash plane, from Nîmes, had been made available to them and that a hundred additional firefighters had been mobilized for the weekend. The Gironde is currently placed in forest fire orange vigilance.
In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, classified in heat wave orange vigilance, the prefecture has banned five hikes and pedestrian and cycling sports competitions scheduled for Saturday, including a cycling race between Spain and France bringing together 9,000 participants (the Quebrantahuesos). It is a question, she explains, of “preventing a serious attack on the physical integrity or the health of the participants and spectators of the demonstrations”.
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