The Saumos fire in Gironde has made relatively little progress since Tuesday evening. Nevertheless, “two new evacuations were decided this Wednesday noon by the authorities in Saint Helena between the D6E3 and D5, and between the road to Brach and the road to the Ocean”, indicates the prefecture of Gironde, which specifies that about “500 people are concerned”. This brings the number of people evacuated since Monday to just over 1,300.
“The weather conditions remain difficult, with the persistence of wind, heat and drought, continues the prefecture. The Gironde department remains on orange forest fire vigilance, and has been on storm yellow vigilance since 12 noon. “The wind has changed direction – coming from the south so far, it is now blowing from the west, which is never good news: we are going to be very vigilant” worries the departmental director. emergency services, Marc Vermeulen. Fireheads remain active to the north and east.
Up to 1,000 firefighters engaged
Human and material resources also went up a notch on Wednesday. “Up to 1,000 firefighters from Gironde and other departments will be mobilized at the height of the day, while six Canadair, three Dash and two water bomber helicopters are engaged today. »
The total area of burned forest is now increased to more than 3,600 hectares, adds the prefecture, which specifies “that no additional house was damaged”. Seven firefighters were very slightly injured, none required hospitalization.