9:26 a.m. – A400M military aircraft deployed “by the end of July”
An Airbus A400M military transport plane, “equivalent to three Canadairs”, will be “mobilized (…) by the end of July” and “come in support of all other means” of fighting the fires which are ravaging several French regions, announced government spokesperson Maud Bregeon.
Thanks to “technical adaptation work”, the Airbus A400M, in service since 2013, was “developed” so as to drop “the equivalent of three Canadairs in volume of water”, explained the spokesperson on BFMTV-RMC, to fight fires.
9:15 a.m. – 2,000 hectares burned in Gironde
The very virulent fire which has been raging since Wednesday near the Arcachon basin (Gironde) has now covered 2,000 hectares and led, in the early hours of the day, to the evacuation of around 7,000 additional people, the prefecture announced.
This measure, decided “as a preventative measure” by the authorities, concerns six campsites and a naturist residential area located north of Cap Ferret, an area very frequented by tourists during the summer.
The night’s news
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A fire of great virulence has already covered more than 1,000 hectares and continues to progress north of the Arcachon basin (Gironde), where several thousand residents and tourists have been evacuated in this sector of the Landes de Gascogne forest, already ravaged by flames in 2022.
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“We are facing” the fires which are multiplying across the country, declared Laurent Nuñez in Bordeaux, adding that “there are a little enough of the controversies” on the means of fighting available to the firefighters.
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The public prosecutor in Bordeaux announced a tougher criminal prosecution against the use of fire in forests, and in particular the throwing of cigarette butts.
