SYLVAIN THOMAS via Getty Images
FIRES – The fire which has ravaged 650 hectares of forest since Thursday in the Cévennes, in the north of Gard, evolved “favorably” this Friday, July 8, in a “high-risk context” where the firefighters were overstretched with d other fire outbreaks to manage in the department.
Météo-France had placed the Gard on Friday “on maximum alert for forest fires” due to the heat, gusts of wind and vegetation weakened by extreme and early drought.
In the north of the department, near the Ardèche, more than 550 firefighters from all over France remained mobilized for the “mega-fire”, according to the term used by the relief services, which have been mobilizing them since Thursday evening.
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“We are working the fire on its edges, but it will be a very long fire to finish because there are kilometers of edges. We will be able to speak of a controlled fire when there is no longer any risk of resumption. But with the very unfavorable weather conditions we are facing, it may not be before Sunday,” Lieutenant-Colonel Éric Agrinier, communications officer for the Gard firefighters, told AFP.
On the ground, the vegetation was totally destroyed in places, the treetops were preserved in others. “From a distance we can see the brown Cévennes… it hurts,” said Anaïs Donval, a resident of Bessèges, who had been evacuated for the night.
“Afterwards, there is more fear than harm, there was very little damage and no injuries, that’s the main thing,” she added, reassured to know her house was spared.
The tourist sites of La Baume and the Saint-Nicolas bridge evacuated
Despite the violence of the flames which ravaged hundreds of hectares in a few hours, only a garage and a mazet (small rural building) were burned.
According to its mayor, Olivier Martin, the village of Gagnières was “saved” thanks to firefighters who quickly lit a backfire.
However, this fire remains modest compared to the 5000 hectares burned in September 1985 a few kilometers away, in the region of Portes, a disaster engraved in the memory of the elders.
Over-solicited since Thursday, the Gard firefighters faced eight other fires in the department on Friday, where the prefect had banned until Monday from entering all forest areas of more than one hectare. It announced this Friday evening that 49 fire starts were counted in total in the department in two days.
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Thus, a hundred other firefighters, supported by a water bomber helicopter and four Canadair, intervened in Sainte-Anastasie, above Nîmes, where at least one hectare had been covered. The tourist sites of La Baume and the Saint-Nicolas bridge, upstream from the Pont du Gard, have been evacuated.
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#Gard Civil security
Nimes. Access to forest areas prohibited due to the risk of#fire.https://t.co/u5ei8aOaOG
The town hall of #Nimes has decided to cancel the July 14 fireworks display. pic.twitter.com/pcajuFs62U— altermidi (@altermidi1) July 8, 2022
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Near Arles, another fire was underway, in Beaucaire, near homes, but it was “not worrying” for firefighters.
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