24
At the edge of a wood miraculously spared by the flames, on a small municipal road leading to Hostens (Gironde), a huge patch of young charred pines exhales plumes of gray smoke on a ground covered with lunar-looking ashes. Coming out of the bend, the criminal identification van is parked on the roadside. 20 m from the roadway, on the edge of a forest plot, the men scan the undergrowth in search of the slightest clue.