Firefighters have allies over their heads. Their name: Sentinel. A group of satellites coordinated by the European Copernicus program, jointly managed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission.
On July 12, 2022, two fires were born to the east and west of the Gironde. In Landiras, not far from Sauternes and in La Teste-de-Buch, at the foot of the Dune du Pilat. Civil Security, which depends on the Ministry of the Interior, then requests close monitoring of the situation from the Copernicus program.
“We have been working with Copernicus for several years, it is a very valuable tool”
Spokesperson for Civil Security
Activated for the first time in 2022, this close surveillance quickly began to produce images and technical data. “In the context of a fire, the main gain is to identify each source of flames” specifies Julie Moulas at Civil Security. The first images, striking, already make it possible to imagine the extent of the disaster to date.
La Teste: where is the fire?
Those who have had the chance to climb the Dune du Pilat (Gironde), the highest in Europe, all remember the immense pine forest that extends from its foothills. A green plain now ravaged by flames.
La Teste: the impact of a week of fires seen from the sky
At the time of writing, July 21, 2022, the authorities report 7,000 hectares burned in La Teste. The images transmitted on July 19 already show the extent of the disaster: scorched land and still active outbreaks around the area.
Much more than pictures
Sentinel’s competition doesn’t stop at taking pictures. The technicians of the European program are able to make them speak by publishing valuable technical data. Measurement of affected areas, pointing of fires, threatened infrastructure or even counting of destroyed buildings… so much information transmitted to the South-West Civil Security, in charge of coordinating operations.
The same device for the Landiras fire
About fifty kilometers to the east, at the same time, the flames ravaged the rural town of Landiras. The emergency services have the same wealth of information there, which allows us to dissect the scene in the same way.