Europe 1 with AFP 10:04 p.m., September 12, 2022

An ongoing fire since Monday afternoon has covered between 320 and 350 hectares of vegetation and forest in Saumos.

The firefighters indicated that the inhabitants of the town of the commune were forced to evacuate, in a context of high heat in Gironde.

Another fire was also declared in the Landes.

A fire in progress since Monday afternoon has covered between 320 and 350 hectares of vegetation and forest in Saumos and forced the evacuation of the village of the town in a context of high heat in Gironde, we learned from firefighters.

The department, affected by major fires this summer (nearly 30,000 hectares burned in La Teste-de-Buch and Landiras), experienced very high temperatures on Monday, with in particular a monthly record recorded in Bordeaux (37.5 degrees), never seen in September since 1987.

500 inhabitants evacuated from a village

Some 500 inhabitants of the town of Saumos have joined shelters in the neighboring municipalities of Temple, Porge and Sainte-Hélène, according to Codis 33, which described the situation as "quite virulent".

About 340 firefighters are present in Saumos, a village located between the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean and the Bordeaux conurbation, and must work "all night".

Significant air resources were mobilized before nightfall, with two Canadairs, two helicopters and a Dash plane.

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The Gironde department also indicated in the evening that it was mobilizing its ferries between Royan (Charente-Maritime) and Le Verdon-sur-Mer, at the northern tip of the Médoc, to cross the Gironde estuary at reinforcements coming from Charente-Maritime.

Reinforcements from Lot-et-Garonne are also planned.

Another fire in the Landes

In addition, a fire had been underway since Monday afternoon in the neighboring department of Landes, in Herm, with around 45 hectares burned.

This town is located north of Dax, a city where a heat record for the month of September was also beaten on Monday (39°C).

A hundred firefighters and air resources are mobilized on this fire which, like that of Saumos, is not located in the Landes de Gascogne massif, the largest softwood forest in Europe according to local authorities.