From our special correspondent in La Teste-de-Buch,
Dominique and Michel are stunned. Retired workers, they left Champigny (Ile-de-France) on Saturday to spend a few days in Teste-de-Buch, in Gironde, in a small rented house close to the Dune du Pilat, behind which since now six days, the forest is ablaze.
Two neighborhoods – Pyla-sur-Mer and Miquelots – were evacuated on Monday during the day. Dominique and Michel were notified by telephone, then by the caretaker of their residence. “We were told to leave, so we left leaving all our belongings,” says Dominique.
Her husband and she hoped to find their home the same evening. They will do nothing and will sleep on cots at the Parc des Expositions de La Teste, a large hangar where municipal services, volunteers from the Red Cross and other solidarity actors involved in the care of the evacuees are active.
“90% of the five campsites” in the sector burned
At the edge of the Arcachon basin, this afternoon of exodus involved 8,000 people. “Immediate evacuation towards Arcachon. Remember to take your pets, chant the police in their megaphone, who go from house to house to inform the inhabitants. They try to reassure them in the midst of this confusing situation and the overwhelming heat
A “preventive” operation, as recalled by the prefect of Gironde, Fabienne Buccio, during a situation update at 6:30 p.m. At this stage, no casualties were to be deplored, two houses burned down and “90% of the five campsites” in the sector, including the famous “Camping des flots bleus”, went up in smoke, despite the efforts of the firefighters. The sound of gas cylinders abandoned on the spot and exploding one after the other punctuated the escape of the residents.
This count remains relatively positive, according to the prefect, in the light of the 4,600 hectares calcined. But Fabienne Buccio accepts her pessimism. She warns: “We will do our best to contain the fire, but this favorable provisional assessment may not be maintained”, the fire being far from being brought under control, despite the efforts of more than a thousand firefighters. , including 650 permanently mobilized. “Rest is rare,” says the fire chief of Gironde.
A struggle in extreme weather conditions
The work of firefighters is getting more complicated day after day. Temperatures have continued to rise since the first day of the fires in Gironde. At the end of last week, the confrontation between the flames and the firefighters reached its climax, at the hottest hours, when the breeze rises. But this Monday, the critical tipping point was reached at midday, with heat peaks exceeding 40° and a constantly rotating wind, making the progression of the blaze unpredictable.
In the midst of the crisis, the refugees organize themselves without knowing how long the fire will prevent them from returning home. Emilie hit the road early in the afternoon, in a car full of six children. Direction Rocamadour, in Lot-et-Garonne, under a blazing sun. Others return less far, but are worried about their house left behind, like Mario who hastened to harness his bikes to the back of his vehicle before leaving for Mérignac, near Bordeaux.
The Test on alert
The majority of those evacuated – including Patrick Davet, the mayor of La Teste – seem to have found solutions to take shelter with relatives or in hotels that were not yet full despite the high season which was in full swing until then. The phone of Séverine, who lives here year-round, kept ringing throughout the afternoon. Calls from friends who are geographically distant and worried about her, others made by relatives in search of crisis hospitality. La Testerine has therefore opened its doors to allow those who have requested it to come to it.
The refuge at the Parc des Expositions was thus very empty on Monday evening, welcoming a few tourists far from home, like Dominique and Michel, but also and above all isolated elderly people, sitting in silence, staring blankly.
The sun has finally set in the shadow of the thick plume of smoke that clutters the sky over the Arcachon basin. The fire is still progressing, and in the streets of La Teste where the order to evacuate has not been given for the moment, the families discuss on the sidewalk and fill the trunks of the cars with their suitcases, ready to leave if the flames came to threaten them the day after a night that could not be peaceful.