“We had never been involved in a forest fire of such magnitude. It was impressive. When there are pines 30 meters high burning with flames of the same size, on a 15 km front… Few of the firefighters present had ever seen…
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“We had never been involved in a forest fire of such magnitude. It was impressive. When there are pines 30 meters high burning with flames of the same size, on a front of 15 km… Few of the firefighters present had already seen that”, testifies Captain Stéphane Anton, 49 years old. 20,800 hectares went up in smoke and 20,000 people were evacuated. Never had the Gironde experienced such a fire in its history.
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“The fire was never fixed all the time of our presence. We spent our time running behind him, depending on the wind and the relief, ”says Staff Sergeant Laurent Chevalier, 42. Especially since these firefighters from Anglet were not used to the specificities of the Gironde forest. “Some pines were perforated by the resin workers who collect the sap (tapping, editor’s note). When the flames enter the trunk, the sap inside boils with the heat and eventually causes the trunk to explode. Trees can fall, you have to be careful, ”explains Stéphane Anton, more used to the dangers of fires in the La Rhune sector or in Ascain.
“Ready to go back”
The first team from the Anglet barracks was called urgently the day after the fire started, on Wednesday July 13. “What struck us when we arrived in La-Teste-de-Buch was the plume of smoke from the highway but also the number of firefighters present on site. The human and material resources deployed were extraordinary, continues the captain. The support line of the trucks extended over a kilometer at Pilat was considerable. In total, 60 departments sent reinforcements. In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a first team of 21 firefighters from Anglet first stayed on site for three days. A relay system, on a voluntary basis, was then set up.
“We were all volunteers. We couldn’t see ourselves staying at the barracks without going there. Fighting fire is what drives us. This is the very essence of our profession. As soon as we got back, we were all ready to go back, ”explains Lieutenant Jean-Jacques Dupuy, 52. Added to this satisfaction is a minimal material and human toll, despite the scale of the fire. After a fierce struggle, several villages were saved from the flames. Today they appear as bubbles in the midst of nothingness.
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“The fire was coming upon us”
“Sometimes you feel helpless. It is enough for the wind to turn and everything has to be redone. In addition to the wind, there was the temperature over 40°C. The humidity was very low too. The water was drying quickly on the ground. All these factors mean that the flames spread very quickly, ”says Laurent Chevalier. Captain Anton even got a bit scared: “Our 4×4 vehicle got stuck in the sand and the fire was coming at us. He was 50 meters away and we couldn’t move. Fortunately a truck quickly arrived to pull us. »
In these dantesque conditions, the firefighters drank on average “1 liter of water per hour”. From Saturday July 16 to Sunday July 17, the night was particularly trying. “We fought to preserve the campsites of the Dune du Pilat. Unfortunately, when we returned to the site on Monday evening, everything had burned down in the afternoon. It was terrible. There was no waste left, just stones…”, deplore the firefighters.
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In boxers in the lake
Faced with strong heat, even at night, all means are good to cool off. “We found ourselves in our underpants in Lake Cazaux to fill the motor pumps,” says the staff sergeant. This unpublished image will remain etched in his memory as a defining moment of these fires. It was also his team who plunged all the gas bottles from the La Corniche restaurant in La-Teste-de-Buch into the swimming pool to avoid explosions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeoEVsPW-hE–
