ReportageThe region of the Monts d’Arrée, in Finistère, has been facing a major fire since July 18. Surprised by the intensity of the fire, the inhabitants, still moved by the destruction of their land, try to resume their daily lives.
“Within thirty minutes, it was a giant méchoui. » This is how Cécile Becquart, sheep breeder on the Monts d’Arrée in Brittany, describes what she experienced on the night of Monday July 18 to Tuesday July 19. This Thursday, the young farmer, aged 38, returns with her companion, Clément Mathey, to see the damage on the heights of Mount Tuchenn Kador. The couple passes a fire truck. All around, the spectacle is desolate. The moors are reduced to ashes. The smell of fumes hits the nose and throat. Cécile Becquart and Clément Mathey enter the ground, still smoking in places.
The fire broke out on Monday, around 2:45 p.m., in the Brasparts sector (Finistère). In three days, more than 1,700 hectares burned (approximately 15% of the Monts d’Arrée site), 300 firefighters were mobilized and 500 people had to be evacuated. Saturday morning, the Finistère prefecture reported four outbreaks still active, including “two new outbreaks triggered in the second part of the afternoon”as well as the presence of “230 firefighters and 50 combat vehicles, with nighttime reinforcements from neighboring departments”.
Cécile Becquart and Clément Mathey run the Squiriou sheepfold. In summer, they move half of their herd, between 70 and 80 animals, to the heights of the mountains. “It relieves us economically for two months. Especially with the drought”says M.me Becquart. They have to buy 2,000 euros worth of hay to survive the summer.
“We thought that our animals were not in danger”
Monday, at the end of the afternoon, a farmer friend alerts them. “Until the last moment, we thought that our animals were not in danger. It all happened so fast”, remembers the breeder. The couple decides to join their herd at the beginning of the evening. “We did not know the extent of the danger. We could have been surrounded by flames. But I was not going to let my animals burn”, says Mr. Mathey. They must « improviser ». “The paths we usually took were in flames. We didn’t even have flashlights. So, we were trying to enlighten each other with the telephone”, continues the breeder. More than four hours are needed for young breeders to reach their sheepfold.
Three days later, Mr.me Becquart hopes to find a sheep they had to leave behind on Monday: “She collapsed. These are extreme temperatures for sheep. » In vain, the sheep remains untraceable.
When she describes the landscapes that surround her land, Myriam Lacroix must constantly correct herself. ” This is. Finally, it was. » She and her husband, Sylvain Le Treust, own a farm with Black Angus cows in Saint-Rivoal. It is Mr. Le Treust who warns Clément Mathey that the flames are dangerously approaching his herd on Monday. He returns in disaster “to shelter his animals”. “In this situation, you ask yourself: What do you have to take? What matters to you? I put our three cats in the motorhome”says M.me The cross.
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