Emmanuel Macron will go to Gironde on Wednesday “along with firefighters, civil security personnel, law enforcement, elected officials and all those mobilized” against the gigantic fires, the Elysium announced on Tuesday.
The president, who will be accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, will make this trip the afternoon after the Council of Ministers.
Just over 20,000 hectares burned
He took stock of the situation on Tuesday morning with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Gérald Darmanin, Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu and Director General for Civil Security and Crisis Management (DGSCGC) Alain Thirion. He then asked them “to continue and further strengthen the action taken to combat the fires in the Gironde while increasing the capacity for national action for the coming weeks,” the presidency specified.
The two gigantic fires that have raged since July 12 in Gironde have burned 19,300 hectares of forest. Some 6,500 hectares were destroyed in La Teste-de-Buch, near Arcachon, and 12,800 in the Landiras sector, in the south of the department, according to a latest assessment carried out this Tuesday morning by the prefecture.
Some 2,000 mobilized firefighters
More than 34,000 people, residents or vacationers, had to leave their homes because of these two fires that caused no fatalities. Nearly 2,000 firefighters, from all over France, and significant air assets (8 Canadair and 2 Dash) were mobilized on Tuesday.
“For more than a week, the mobilization, solidarity and commitment of all the active forces of the nation mobilized on these fires have been exceptional and exemplary,” the Elysee underlined.
Emmanuel Macron is scheduled for this Thursday in the Hautes-Pyrenees to attend the 18th stage of the Tour de France, after going to a sports center in Tarbes.
Source: BFM TV
