France's Summer of Wildfire Discontent

The wildfire turns the sky red over Lake Moutchic in Lacanau. The popular tourist destination had to be shut down. Photograph: Sapte Fabrice/Abaca/Shutterstock

 

"I hear the anger and  understand the anger today but we're not in a place to analyze what happened yet."

"The resources were available, but the fire was out of control. It was spreading in all directions." 

"[The worst damage occurred at night, when water-bombing aircraft cannot fly to the firefighters' aid] yet with fires like this, aerial support is essential."

"Then there were tactical decisions to be made. Were the right vehicles used at the right time?"

"The conditions this year are totally exceptional. We’ve never seen anything like this. You can always say it’s not enough, we’ve not got adequate resources, enough planes, or whatever, but the scale is completely beyond anything we’ve seen before."

Le Porge Mayor Martial Zaninetti 

 

"It was a short circuit or something of that nature [a spark from a faulty machine being used by workers cleaning a high-tension cable had just ignited a fierce blaze] and immediately everything went up because it’s all so dry. The guys there tried to use a fire extinguisher but it was too intense. My guys basically ran for their lives and by the time the fire brigade turned up it was huge."

"The authorities should have stopped all work in the forest. Someone got their priorities wrong."

Nicolas Di Domenico, local public works contractor 

 

"We feared this for a long time, and were warning about the planes specifically since 2017."

"This summer has shown we have reached the extreme limit of what is possible for France’s firefighters."

Sebastien Delavoux, head, firefighting section, CGT union  

Avenue du Bassin d'Arcachon in Le Porge, France, seen Thursday, is the worst-hit street in the small town of 3,500 where 183 homes have burned in the Gironde wildfire near Bordeaux. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

 

The French countryside west of Bordeau is burning. Residents of LePorge are furious in their belief their homes were 'sacrificed' so that other homes in the wealthy nearby Cap Ferret peninsula could be saved. When the Gironde prefect arrived to meet with the Le Porge mayor in a village where 12 percent of its 1,500 buildings went up in flames, a man hurled abuse at the prefect. "Now is not the time to play the blame game", said Sophie Brocas, as police and security led her from the town's community hall, while en route to the next blaze, a helicopter whirred overhead.

 

The locals of the village who witnessed 183 of their homes entirely consumed by the 42,000-hectare wildfire -- which had torched a total of 240 houses -- are livid, convinced that the inadequate support send to their area and the preferential aide sent to Cap Ferret with its millionaires' homes represented a political decision that led to a focus of early firefighting efforts at the peninsula. 

 

Coordinating volunteers aiding firefighters in the neighbouring village of Le Temple, Pierre Alexandre argued the region had not been given sufficient firefighting units and vehicles, and was thus 'sacrificed' to favour the well-heeled residents of Cap Ferret. "We should have distributed our resources better", he stated. 

 

Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas responded that the never-before-seen nature of the wildfire that changed direction unpredictably, made it impossible to predict when it would turn about and blow back toward La Porge, with the resulting devastating consequences. La Porge's 3,700 population failed to be convinced by that argument. Angry mistrust settled over the village where rows of ruined homes stood as silent accusing sentries.

 

None of the villagers cast any blame whatever at the firefighters, much less the volunteers who did what they could to augment the dangerous firefighting efforts alongside the firefighters. Residents set up improvised roadblocks, garbed themselves in fluorescent vests, on guard for potential opportunists looking to be able to loot abandoned homes after the owners rushed to escape the raging blaze. 

 

Villagers did what they could to cater food for hungry rescuers. "We found one firefighter sleeping in a ditch as a result of how tired  he was", said caterer Manu Goncalves in between offering portions of roast chicken to the volunteers and professional firefighters. "Here things were ablaze, while in Cap Ferret they weren't. Everyone went to Cap Ferret to protect that peninsula, even as things went up in flames here", said Theo Goncalves, in heated indignation.   

"[Residents ] felt abandoned [when the authorities diverted resources to Cap Ferret]."

"And that goes for everyone -- the volunteers, the firefighters, everyone."

Dorothe Benassy, La Porge municipal councillor  

A drone view shows burnt buildings in an area affected by a wildfire in Le Porge, Gironde, amid drought conditions following a heat wave and water shortages across much of France, on Tuesday. (Yves Herman/Reuters)