“It is continuing, but the fire is progressing more slowly and fortunately no longer threatens housing,” a spokesman for the Gard fire department told AFP by telephone early Friday morning. According to him, many edges of the fire remain “not accessible”.
Barely daybreak on Friday, the air resources resumed the drops, with two Milan engaged from 6:00 a.m., he added. The fire broke out around 5:00 p.m. Thursday in Bordezac, on the edge of the Ardèche, north of Alès. The inhabitants of this hamlet as well as some others from Bessèges had to be evacuated and around a hundred people were relocated, according to the prefecture.
The Gard firefighters were quickly joined by columns from other departments, to reach a total of 700 firefighters and rescuers, according to a tweet from civil security, which adds the intervention of ten planes (seven Canadair , three Dash, two Beech) as well as a Dragon 131 helicopter.
“Thousands of hectares at risk”
At midnight Thursday, firefighters reported “thousands of hectares at risk” in this heavily wooded area. The fire is fanned by extreme weather conditions: a violent wind and very dry trees.
Questioned by AFP, the sub-prefect of Alès, Jean Rampon, feared Thursday evening “a spectacle of desolation” in the morning, and feared an overflow of fire on the other bank of the Cèze, “where 10,000 hectares burned down in 1985”.
On Thursday, multiple other fires started in Gard and Bouches-du-Rhône. Most were fixed before dark.
