It’s 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Two huge plumes of smoke, visible for about thirty kilometers, rise in the sky of the Arrée mountains. The first concerns Brennilis. It is located between the places called Corsforn and Kermorvan. The fire advances rapidly pushed and fanned by an east wind. On the municipal road C1, residents have gathered. “The nightmare continues, laments a man. We will never get out of it. »
Cattle brought to safety
Not far from there, farmers decide to change fields with their cattle, terrified by the flames. “They didn’t know where to go. They went up and down the hill. The fire can progress and cross the road, explains Dominique Coadour, deputy mayor who is managing the situation. Two houses are on display. I asked that we secure the surroundings. Yesterday, already, there were resumptions of fire. »
Fortunately, the work of the firefighters will pay off. The flames will finally be contained after having devoured fir trees. They will not reach this main road, thanks to the stubbornness of the thirty men engaged in this theater of operations. For the greatest relief of one of the local residents who, despite a calm he wants apparent, is suffering from a very stressful situation. “I am restoring my house which is 400 m from the flames. It would be a tragedy if the fire happened. In the evening, 15 hectares had burned and a hundred others were still threatened, an area far from the power plant.
The wind revives the embers
The minutes pass. From Brennilis we suddenly see impressive clouds of smoke coming from Brasparts, where the situation seems very tense. Here it is the sector of Stumenven which is concerned, on the road to Saint-Rivoal. It is a very wooded area, planted with softwoods, where the fire finds food. “It’s a furnace up there, comments a firefighter. The east wind is violent and keeps getting stronger. We will have a hard time extinguishing the flames. For a few hours, we have seen fumaroles everywhere. The flames resume where they were treated in July. A hundred firefighters and 35 machines are engaged in this forest fire. In the sky revolves the helicopter of the gendarmerie. A specific command post has been activated, as well as a medical support post.
No air assets yet
Around 4 p.m., the fire continued to progress very quickly, fanned by winds of 45 km/h. So much so that the authorities decided to ban all traffic on two departmental roads: the D30 which leads to Saint-Rivoal and the D785 which runs from north to south the Arrée mountains and which passes at the foot of Mont-Saint-Michel.
In the evening, the sub-prefect of Brest, Jean-Philippe Setbon specified that at this stage, “the criminal trail of the fire was not proven. A hundred firefighters and machines are currently mobilized, with extra-departmental reinforcements, teams from Ille-et-Vilaine and Côtes-d’Armor. The hamlet of Kilivihan, of about ten inhabitants on the road to Saint-Rivoal, was evacuated. The fire is not yet under control. We have asked for air assets, which we have not yet obtained. For the hours to come, everything will depend on whether the wind weakens or not.
letelegramme Fr Trans