The situation “considerably improved during the night” due to the precipitation in the firefighters’ intervention zone, said Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Mendousse of the Gironde departmental fire and rescue service.
The balance sheet of this resumption of fire, following the gigantic fire of July in Landiras, has been maintained at 7400 hectares since Tuesday. But “the risks of resumptions persist”, specifies the prefecture in a press release.
“It fell between 10 and 30 mm over the whole sector but on a ground which was extremely dry. We know that it gives a respite but does not mean an end to the fight. We know that if it does not rain in once more in 48 to 72 hours, the risk will become significant once more,” added Arnaud Mendousse.
Foreign firefighters as reinforcements
On Sunday around 9 a.m. around Hostens, the sides of the roads yellowed by the drought were wet once more, noted an AFP journalist. Thick clouds still overhung the firefighters’ Security PC early in the morning, who consider the situation “favorable” for the day.
“The humidity is high and the temperature relatively low, around 25 degrees, which will allow us to continue our efforts. The fire is absolutely not extinguished, the ground remains extremely hot”, underlined Arnaud Mendousse.
On the ground, “significant land and air resources remain mobilized”. Nearly 400 firefighters from Germany, Romania, Poland, Austria, Greece and Italy are still supporting the French firefighters.
Fire set in Brocéliande
In Brittany, the fire in the forest of Brocéliande, high place of the Arthurian legend, was fixed Sunday at the end of the morning following a major resumption of fire during the night. It remains under observation by 180 firefighters, according to the Morbihan prefecture.
The fire which broke out overnight from Thursday to Friday in the town of Campénéac, 60 km from Rennes is “under active surveillance” following having covered 630 hectares and having destroyed 400. The interministerial communication service has told AFP that “the rain obviously helped the firefighters, but we don’t know how this will evolve in the hours to come”.
