Fire ravages 165 hectares of vegetation in southwestern France

One hundred and sixty-five hectares of vegetation went up in smoke in a fire that took place on the evening of Thursday, July 30 in a forest in the heart of Anglet, in Pyrénées-Atlantiques, in the southwest of France.

"The fire is under control, there is an improvement compared to the night, but there are still two or three hard points" and "any risk of recovery is not ruled out", said the mayor of this town of the Basque coast. "One hundred hectares of forest were destroyed in one piece, 165 hectares with the swings of fire", announced Friday morning the mayor of Anglet, Claude Olive.

Sixteen people were poisoned without gravity, by the smoke, and eleven houses were affected by the fire, including five rendered uninhabitable, according to an updated report from the prefecture of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Some 130 firefighters remained on Friday early in the morning engaged in the fire, in protection and surveillance, while 150 had been mobilized at the height of the device Thursday evening.

#Anglet #incendie The fire is approaching inhabited areas. Dozens of residents evacuated to accommodation centers pic.twitter.com/h2IH09SJb5

The firefighters were particularly keen to "drown" the land, still dangerous with embers, stumps, which constitute as many risks of resumption of fire, said Claude Olive.

The mayor urged the Angloys (inhabitants of Anglet) not to go to the scene out of curiosity, and to let the firefighters work. He estimated that the hundred residents evacuated Thursday evening, should not be able to return home "before the end of the afternoon".

The origin of the disaster still unknown

The fire, the origin of which was still not determined on Friday morning, broke out late Thursday afternoon, fueled by the wind and fueled by drought and strong heat. The flames devastated hectares of pine forest in the Chiberta forest, in the heart of Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), forcing the evacuation of many homes.

This wooded area of ​​over 250 hectares is located in the city center, between the Adour river and the Atlantic, bordered in particular by a prestigious golf course and luxurious villas.

Fire in progress in the forest of Chiberta in #Anglet, impressive from #Biarritz pic.twitter.com/4d37C3DxH1

Two water bomber planes from Bordeaux had ceased their rotations at nightfall on Thursday after having carried out 18 drops, according to Civil Security. The rescue teams allowed the hospital treatment of 6 inhabitants, 5 police officers and 1 firefighter, according to the prefecture.

The Chiberta forest, a veritable island of greenery within the densely populated Bayonne-Biarritz-Anglet agglomeration, "is a large pine forest with tall trees that are very difficult to reach," explained the secretary general of the prefecture Eddie Bouttera.

"The climatic conditions are not good at all, with a very low humidity, a strong hot wind and very high temperatures, that does not help us", for his part lamented the mayor of Anglet.

Going north and the mouth of the Adour, the fire in particular consumed the ecological park Izadia and its house, according to Claude Olive. "It is part of our environmental heritage that has gone up in smoke," lamented the mayor of this coastal town of 40,000 inhabitants.

Early in the evening, dozens of people were forced to leave their homes as a matter of urgency, noted an AFP correspondent, who saw people leaving by car with suitcases hurriedly thrown in their vehicles.

"At the bottom of my street, the flames were approaching the houses and they were very strong, we all got in our cars," a resident told this AFP correspondent.

The South-West experienced very hot weather on Thursday. Saint-Jean-de-Luz, not far from Anglet on the Basque coast, broke its temperature record with 41.9 ° C recorded by Météo-France.

Further north, in Gironde, a forest fire devoured more than 295 hectares of pine trees on Monday, also fueled by the summer drought.

With AFP

The summary of the week France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 application