On August 16, 2021, a year before the monster fire that ravaged the Gironde, another large fire caused enormous damage in the Var.
A year later, the traces of this gigantic fire are clearly visible.
For their part, the firefighters are trying to learn the lessons of this exceptional disaster.
From our special correspondent in Gonfaron (Var),
“When I arrived here, I understood that it was over and it was too late.
The drama was tied almost a year ago, but Hervé Azzopardi recounts the scene with such precision, almost minute by minute, that one might think that the drama dates from the day before.
The picture that is taking shape under the eyes of the head of the center at La Garde-Freinet in the Var has retained its air of macabre scenes.
As far as the eye can see, in an immense silent plain, an alignment of black, burnt trunks, charred branches, and here and there, a few touches of green, when nature has succeeded, somehow, in regenerating itself.
On August 16, long before the monster fire that recently ravaged the Gironde, the Var department experienced one of the biggest fires in its history.
Under oppressive heat, flames, at the crazy speed of 4 kilometers per hour, burned 6,800 hectares in a few days, between Gonfaron and Cogolin, the very place where, in 2003, three firefighters lost their lives in another large fire. magnitude.
Stigmas still visible
A disaster whose scars remain clearly visible, months later.
"Here was Mrs. L's house." At the bend of a lost path in the hinterland, at La Garde-Freinet, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Claude Poppi faces a vast building.
Or rather the skeleton of what we guess as an imposing rural house, now abandoned.
The walls are blackened.
The roof is gone.
Three charred cars lie in front of the windows with melted panes.
We are a few kilometers as the crow flies from the starting point of the fire, in the middle of a nature reserve.
While walking along the concrete carcass, the lieutenant-colonel says that, while the flames progressed at a frantic pace, the director of the reserve gave the order to evacuate the first houses around.
She then found herself face to face with the nurse of the old lady who lived there.
The caregiver had just locked the house, locking up the bedridden woman for the night, as usual after each treatment.
Ms. L. was rushed out of what could have been her final resting place.
A few minutes later, the fire was burning everything in its path.
Since then, the old lady has never returned, and time has stood still here.
Undergrowth in the viewfinder
Next to it, another uninhabited house, also owned by the old lady, gives the whole place the appearance of a ghost hamlet.
In front of the swimming pool with greenish water, by a miracle that the lieutenant-colonel cannot explain, the fabric that covers the front door is immaculate white.
"In front, it's an old wasteland winery," explains the lieutenant-colonel.
So it was not maintained.
»
Almost a year later, firefighters are trying to understand and learn from this fire which ravaged 400 houses and killed two people.
“We still see it, this fire”, blows the comptroller general Eric Grohin, departmental director of the fire and rescue services of the Var.
And one of the keys would be found in a simple and theoretically obligatory act: the clearing of houses.
“The resilience of territories”
“We have all the regulations for this to happen but it is not applied everywhere, sighs the boss of the Var firefighters.
So we work with local elected officials to make the territory as resilient as possible.
It is necessary to enforce the prefectural decree on clearing, for more than there are for example trees above the houses.
It's forbidden !
It's annoying that my men take risks for people who don't pay attention.
The inhabitants who inhabit the forests must protect themselves.
I will even create within the Sdis a group on the resilience of the territories to help the mayors on the subject.
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Because, in practice, according to the firefighter, compliance with this legislation is difficult to implement.
“It is up to the mayors to enforce these laws,” explains Eric Grohin.
But let's take the example of a town like Collobrières.
It is a small commune in size, but it is more than 11 hectares in area.
And the mayor has two municipal policemen.
How can he do?
To enforce clearing, the mayors still have to have the means.
That's why I expect a lot from the law.
»
A report from the Senate
A report from the firefighters, soon to be made public, was notably submitted to the prefect, at the request of the State, while a senatorial report on the major fires is also being drafted, before its publication on August 3.
“The fire broke out in a nature reserve, whose director wanted the clearing not to be done mechanically but only by hand, proclaims Senator LR from Var Jean Bacci, co-author of this report.
For local authorities, it is not possible financially.
So to prolong three pairs of turtles, we burned thousands of hectares!
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And to affirm: “The fire did not start from the motorway station, which had cleared the brush, but from behind.
And there, it was not cleared... "While waiting for a possible law, the Var firefighters have also worked with the company in charge of motorway service areas to improve prevention against forest fires in the areas most at risk. .
“We learned one last thing during this fire, explains Eric Grohin.
Until now, vines were thought to be firewalls.
But the development of organic viticulture had not been taken into account.
Grass grows under the vines on these farms, and it helps spread.
Since then, according to the firefighters, the word has spread to winegrowers who are gradually changing their practices.
So many small gestures that could limit large fires in the future... if not make them disappear.
"These conditions of extreme fires, we will find them more and more often," says Eric Grohin.
This is global warming.
It’s going to be repetitive and that’s our problem…”
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