2023-04-24 09:48:22
On the heights of the cove of Peyrefite, between Banyuls-sur-Mer and Cerbère, all is darkness and desolation. The only trace of life at this late hour of the day, it’s a small beige silhouette hurtling down the escarpment that supports the RD 910. With agility and casualness. “It’s Petitlou. This is the semi-wild cat that I adopted. Oh, I’m relieved. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since the fire on Sunday. I worried about him. I wondered where he had taken refuge to protect himself from the flames. At the time of the fire, I saw all these wild animals descending from the mountain to flee the fire, the intense heat, to seek water or what is left of it at the bottom of the stream which flows below the house. , says Valentin, the very first witness to this gigantic fire which devoured a thousand hectares of vegetation, pushed by the wind from east to west.
“Sunday, when I woke up, the sky was magnificent, a beautiful orange. So I took my cup of coffee. And as I often do, I crossed the plot of vines to get closer to this beautiful sunrise over the sea. And behind the railway line, I discovered a thick plume of smoke, like a kind of mini- mushroom cloud. In half an hour the flames were already at my door. I started to defend myself with water from the borehole. Then, very quickly, the firefighters arrived. They were admirable,” continues Valentin.
“The show is sad”
The fire that morning started from a terrace which is located between the parking lot of the Peirefit beach and the rocky platform which supports the railway line of the Cerbère-Paris line. A priori, according to SNCF investigators, the fire did not start from the train. The cause remains unknown to this day. “It went very quickly. The sparks, carried by the violent wind, ignited the whole mountain. One of my friends, a little higher up who was sleeping in his casote, narrowly escaped this extremely violent fire,” adds Valentin, who is in charge of a distillery project near his house which looks like an island in an ocean. of ashes.
Around its red tiled roof, the brambles, the shrubs, especially the prickly pears, typical of the landscape, have disappeared or melted away in the extreme heat. The enclave of happiness and serenity has lost its thick vegetable fleece. “The sight is sad. I wonder if I will be able to get used to this totally new situation for me. I hope for rain so that the few trees still alive can go back to the bottom of the valley. But the water must come quickly. Otherwise, it will be an additional disaster” concludes Valentin who technically had prepared for the possibility of a fire. Psychologically, it’s another matter. Even if Petitlou is back.
#firefighters #admirable #Cerbère #fire #desolation