REPORTAGE
The flames ravaged 70 hectares of pines on Saturday in the town of Saint-Marcel-Lès-Annonay in Ardèche. 300 firefighters were mobilized and 15 homes had to be temporarily evacuated. The fire was fixed in the evening. 40 firefighters are still there, because the risk of recovery remains high.
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Divided into two intervention groups, the firefighters flood the area to drown the possible outbreaks. Strong winds are the main source of concern. “There is no damage, no injured man, no destroyed house,” said Captain Jérôme Ployon, stressing that the worst was avoided. "Houses were threatened, it had to be taken into account and it was our priority."
"It is a landscape of desolation"
The human toll is certainly satisfactory, but that of biodiversity is much less: meadows and forests have burned down. On the hill, only black soil remains. "These are trees that are gone, certainly also animals hunted by fire too", laments Laurence Dumas, the mayor of the town, who is worried about the ecosystem of the area: birds, deer or even wild boar. "It affects the inhabitants a lot, it is a landscape of desolation."
Laurence Dumas has above all the feeling of a terrible step backwards: in 2000 a fire had also ravaged the region. At the time 1,500 hectares had burned.