Fires in France: firefighters in difficulty in the foothills of the Chartreuse massif
Smoke and flames from the fire in Voreppe in the Chartreuse massif in Isère, August 7, 2022. © Twitter/@Plain_Nicolas via REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Everywhere in France, fires continue to break out: in Brittany and Dordogne, or even in Isère, in the mountainous massif of Chartreuse.
Firefighters have been fighting the flames since Friday afternoon above the town of Voreppe, near Grenoble, where 90 hectares have burned.
The drought complicates the work of firefighters even more than usual.
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It was lightning that ignited the Chartreuse mountain range.
The burning forest is inaccessible to fire soldiers because the terrain is vertical.
But they adapt.
"
We can't make a direct attack and engage people since it's vertical and I'm going to send people who are roped up,
we
explains Colonel Bertrand Cassou, deputy departmental director of the Isère fire brigade, joined by Stéphane Duguet, from the Society service.
And you can't attack planes either, since planes can't drop aside.
We have to wait for the fire in some places.
»
The fire continues to advance on Voreppe!
The firefighters protect the surroundings of the houses, the fire is only a few meters from the houses.
Evacuations continue and several roads are closed.
pic.twitter.com/gLba5OV2ei
— Meteo Grenoble (@MeteoGrenoble38) August 8, 2022
The other complication for the 308 firefighters mobilized is the drought.
"
We have plants that usually do not ignite and today tend to go quickly in the fire and play a role in the spread
", describes Colonel Bertrand Cassou.
Fear of a long-lasting fire
The firefighters have in mind the Néron fire... a summit of the same mountain range.
It burned for a month in 2003. Thirty days during which it had not rained.
“
The fire will be extinguished when there are really the first rains, because it is really the rain that can extinguish inaccessible places.
So if it doesn't rain within 30 days, the fire will continue
, fears the colonel.
There will always be possible re-ignitions and we will always have to move regularly on this fire.
»
In an attempt to stabilize the fire, firefighter helicopters have already dropped more than 130,000 liters of water on the mountain.
♦ Many fires in the rest of France
A fire on the edge of Lozère and Aveyron had "consumed" at least 700 hectares on Tuesday morning, without causing any injuries, but leading to the evacuation of some 1,200 people, according to the prefecture of Aveyron.
Leaving at the end of the day on Monday from Massegros, in Lozère, the fire, started by an agricultural machine, then spread to Mostuéjouls, in Aveyron.
In Brittany, a fire took place near the Quiberon peninsula during the weekend, while another took place in the department of Finistère, most of the fires "are fixed" after having destroyed 290 hectares since Saturday, the prefecture said in a statement in the evening, except for a site near Brasparts where 160 firefighters were still on site.
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