• After the fire that broke out in the forest of Rennes, the authorities are trying to remind people of the good behavior to adopt.

  • The period of drought crossed raises fears of new fires in Brittany, a region renowned for being copiously watered.

  • To better protect against fires, forest management has evolved and replanted species are redesigned to cope with global warming.

That was exactly a week ago.

Alerted by motorists to a fire starting on the edge of the A84, the firefighters of Ille-et-Vilaine rushed towards the forest of Rennes to try to limit the damage.

The wind that swept the flames, the heat and the worrying drought suffered for several months will have complicated their task, forcing the firefighters to stay four whole days on site to deal with this fire.

A rather rare phenomenon in a region not really famous for being dry.

The unexpected arrival of rain and the tens of thousands of liters of water dumped by the firefighters finally saved the 3,000 hectares of forest.

"Only" 25 hectares were reduced to ashes in Liffré, along with many trees and animals, prisoners of the flames and smoke.

A week after the fire, questions are burning our lips: is this type of event likely to happen again?

And how to avoid them?

During the daily rounds he conducted in the disaster area, Franck Muratet was able to see the damage.

Dead bodies of vipers, grass snakes and salamanders have been discovered.

The large mammals have had time to leave.

The vegetation, however, was not spared.

“The fire was contained to ground level so mature trees should survive.

When they are 90 or 100 years old, trees have thick bark that protects them from heat and flames.

But we lost all the maritime pines that we had planted three or four years ago.

The head of the National Forestry Office (ONF) in charge of the Rennes forest evokes the risk of boiling the sap which awaits the most fragile.

Or the physiological stress which could be fatal to certain trees, traumatized by this sudden heat.

"Those,

it will be necessary to wait one or two years to know if they will survive.

Before replanting new trees, the ONF will wait until the spontaneous vegetation such as gorse or ferns leaves.

Probably not for three years.

In the forest, time is long.

The human origin of the fire is hardly in doubt

The Liffré fire under control, it is now the question of its origin that occupies the investigators.

On the spot, the gendarmes carried out surveys.

The human origin is hardly in doubt.

Located close to the highway, the start of the fire could be the result of a cigarette butt thrown out the window, although it is very difficult to confirm this.

While the department of Ille-et-Vilaine is on drought alert, the prefecture is hammering the rules.

“Since 2015, a decree prohibits lighting any fire within 200 meters of woods and forests all year round”.

At the entrance to the massifs, signs remind us of this, as does the formal ban on smoking, regardless of the weather conditions.

“Most of the fires are of human origin, it must be said.

Although it is often unintentional.

We don't need an additional law, just to enforce them, ”slips Franck Muratet.

The ONF agent acknowledges that it is sometimes difficult to know the reasons for the start of the fire.

But drought is a facilitator.

A proof ?

In Rennes, the last “great fire” broke out in 2003, the year of a major heat wave.

To limit the risk, specific actions are carried out with the agricultural profession, which is very present in Brittany, especially during the harvest.

The prefecture recalls "the importance of providing for the presence of a water tanker during this work in order to be able to quickly drown any outbreak of fire caused by a harvester".

When the fire risk is assessed as "major" during a prolonged drought, firefighters' intervention equipment can also be positioned.

But beyond risk prevention, the whole reforestation program is called into question by global warming.

Is it still appropriate to plant maritime pines that are so sensitive to fire?

Throughout France, beech plantations are gradually being abandoned.

While its wood is renowned for heating and furniture, gasoline suffers greatly from prolonged droughts.

In Portugal, the massive plantation of eucalyptus to make paper pulp has generated monstrous fires in recent years.

Better manage water resources

In Brittany, a good number of associations campaign first and foremost to “slow down the water cycle” and thus keep the earth more humid, less subject to heat, drying out and therefore to fire.

Water and rivers of Brittany continues to ask the agricultural profession and local authorities to cover the soil, to opt for re-meandering the waterways and above all to recreate the wooded bocage which was torn so much sixty years ago.

A job that promises to be long.

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