Chloé Lagadou 7:23 p.m., August 14, 2022

This is the good news this Sunday on the fires in Gironde.

The fire is now "fixed", thanks to the arrival of the rain in the night from Saturday to Sunday which brought a relative respite this Sunday to the firefighters in the face of these fires.

But will this rain be enough to irrigate land that has been dry for months?

In the pine forest, the earth and the ashes are wet.

However, gray smoke still escapes from the craters formed in the ground.

A sign that the fire is still present, says Captain Fuster.

"On the peat soils on which we find ourselves here, the particularity is that the fire tends to bury itself and to smolder with not necessarily ultimately a visual sign", he explains.

"It allows after, when we have renewed temperatures, to be able to have fires that there are that come out for a few, a few hours or a few days," he adds.

Actions other than rain needed

Rain is certainly beneficial, but on its own, it is not enough.

"The rain therefore falls behind, it will infiltrate. But you also need a mechanical action and you have to turn the earth and that is long-term work", deciphers Captain Fuster.

And precisely, a few meters further, Eva, a volunteer firefighter, sprinkles a calcined pine stump with his water nozzle.

“So there, we cool the hot spots that stand out on the ground. It continues to heat up and we wait for them to prevent it from starting again behind”, she says.

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Even if the fire is fixed, the firefighters are not going to stop now.

They will continue to drown the floors until the fire is completely extinguished.