Ten houses destroyed and nearly 500 hectares burned. The fire declared at the beginning of the week in the town of Saint-André (Pyrénées-Orientales) caused damage. Not to mention a partially destroyed campsite in Argelès-sur-Mer, the neighboring town. The mayor of the first town of 4,000 inhabitants does not hide his anger. At the microphone of France Blue Roussillon, he announces “to file a complaint for endangering the lives of others against the inhabitants of Saint-André who have not respected” the obligation to clear brushwood, which makes it possible to limit the risk of the spread of fires. Without action on his part and if a fire spreads on his land, the offender may incur up to 1 year in prison and €15,000 fine.
Well aware that the regulations require it, the mayor had nevertheless undertaken to send, he said, 300 letters to the citizens concerned so that they cleared their plots. “We are in a period of extreme drought, we knew the fire risk and the potential dangers, so I reiterated my request in April, tells Samuel Moli to France Bleu Roussillon.
However, according to him, out of the 300 letters, “only about 150 people replied and correctly cut the ferns, low branches, etc. (…) I believe that the people I informed and contacted have their share of responsibility for the magnitude of this fire. If all the inhabitants had properly cleared their land, we would not be here”.
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