The fire which has ravaged 650 hectares of forest since Thursday in the Cévennes, in the north of Gard, is finally under control, announced Sunday the firefighters, who however maintain on the spot a light surveillance system.
“The fire is under control. But we are continuing active surveillance on stumps that are still burning inside and could start to blaze again under the effect of the wind, ”said Commander Bernard Scotto, in charge of communication for the Gard firefighters.
Nearly 350 firefighters mobilized
Sunday was a quiet day across the department, where only two small alerts were reported and quickly dealt with, the officer said. On the Bordezac fire, “we went around the area and there were a lot fewer reignites,” said the communications officer, according to whom the remaining work, aimed at intervening quickly to extinguish the still active embers, could continue over several days given the “circumference of the area” to be treated and the difficulties of the terrain “which covers two valleys”.
For all these reasons, “we will maintain a staff of 140 firefighters for the night. But we plan tomorrow morning to release two extra-departmental columns representing more than a hundred men, ”he said. In the morning, the spokesperson for the Gard firefighters explained that the priority of the 350 men still on site was to treat “meter by meter the entire circumference of the fire, on the edge between what burned and what did not. ‘has not burned, where one can have outbreaks of fire’. He had also expressed his fear that in the middle of the 650 hectares burned there were still unburned groves which ignited and produced sparks which could then reach the green zone.
Reinforcement air assets
These concerns were still relevant Sunday at the end of the day, even if the grid of the surveillance of the zone was lightened: “Where we had a machine every ten meters, we will keep one every 50 meters. But as soon as we see smoke, we intervene,” said Commander Scotto.
To do this, the firefighters have a water bomber helicopter on site to operate “surgical strikes” on all potential fire outbreaks. In the event of an emergency, national air assets would be called in as reinforcements. Leaving the hamlet of Bordezac around 5 p.m. Thursday, this disaster mobilized up to 950 men, but caused no casualties.