Benjamin Peter, edited by Thibault Nadal 06:10, July 27, 2022

The fire is now considered fixed in the Landiras sector.

13,800 hectares of pine forests have been devastated and the firefighters believe that it will no longer evolve, but their work is not yet finished.

They always have to deal with blows fanned by the wind and a fire that buries itself and smolders under the peat. 

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"Look! If you put your hand, do you feel the heat?", Describes one of the firefighters.

In Landiras, in Gironde, where the fire is now fixed, smoke escapes from the ground.

Commander Martin lifts this heap of grass and pine needles.

This peat that complicates the work of firefighters.

"It's leaves, grass. The fire will burn quietly inside because it will have enough air. It will bury itself and it will smolder. It can progress like that on tens of meters and then at some point, it will go up and it ignites”, she explains at the microphone of Europe 1.

A painstaking job

Further on, Warrant Officer Nicolas, who had come as reinforcements from the Vosges, sprinkled the ground copiously.

"You have to drown well, because underneath it's dry. There are huge hot spots, especially below the roots. Afterwards, we'll do some scraping. We'll try to scrape the peat to lift it and water it. Given the size of the fire on Landiras, it's painstaking work", deciphers this firefighter.

Indeed, in Landiras, in nearly two weeks, the fire burned more than 13,8000 hectares of vegetation.

© Benjamin Peter / Europe 1

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"What could help us is rain"

In this hamlet of La Bun near the town of Hostens, Alain the owner has already had to call the firefighters 7 times.

For him, the fire is fixed, but it is far from over.

"It will be totally over when everything is under control and the potential replays have been crushed. What could help us is rain, but there is none to come", he testifies.

© Benjamin Peter / Europe 1

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And firefighters don't expect the blaze to be completely extinguished before heavy rains in early fall.