After the shock, awareness? “Everyone thought we were safe from major fires in Gironde,” believes Renaud Laheurte, director of the DDTM (Departmental Directorate of Territories and the Sea). With 28,000 hectares burned during the summer, we will have to integrate a different urban planning method ”.
Between July and September, three major fires, in Landiras, La Teste then Saumos, devastated the Gironde forest. “The emergency and crisis management systems were effective, but there was still a luck factor,” analyzes Christine Bouisset, professor of geography, member of the Tree laboratory (Energy and environmental transitions) at the University of Pau. If the start of the fire in La Teste had taken place closer to the campsites, at a time of great turnout, we could have had a much bigger disaster. It also calls for awareness to review how habitat develops in forest areas.
“Prioritization is done at the expense of forests”
“In the past, urbanization took very little account of the fire risk, although in recent years there has been a little more vigilance, the geographer believes. What poses a problem is the tangle in which we find ourselves, between the urbanized area and the forest area. Thus we find ourselves with forest plots caught in the middle of the houses, with the risk of causing a fire to reach the center of the towns, and making the maintenance of these plots more complex. “
The president of the Gironde departmental council, Jean-Luc Gleyze (PS), if he refuses to speak of “anarchist urbanization” in his department, however, acknowledges that “several villages have gradually gone to their limits, sometimes in direct contact with the forest, without any protection zone. “As a result, Christine Bouisset recalls,” the emergency services were forced to prioritize their actions this summer, which is normal: first the populations, then the houses and finally the forest. The priority is therefore to the detriment of the forests. “
“Create stripes around housing estates”
The second consequence of urbanization, the researcher continues, “the more a forest is inhabited, frequented, moreover by people unrelated to forestry problems, the more it multiplies accidental fires, acts of imprudence…. When fires are not caused by arsonists.
Several questions now arise. How to urbanize the rural sector of the south of the department in the future, knowing that the Gironde remains an attractive department, welcoming 20,000 more inhabitants every year? And considering that “the exceptional summer we have just experienced is likely to become a normal summer within ten to fifteen years”, warns Renaud Laheurte. Building the city under the forest can be very enjoyable, but most of all it is extremely dangerous. “
“It is necessary to generalize the already existing measures, which consist in creating perimeter bands around the residential complexes, so that there is not too dense vegetation near the inhabited areas, announces Christine Bouisset. It is feasible, from the moment it is integrated from the moment of construction. We must stop intertwining fragments of subdivision with the forest. It is also necessary to ensure access to emergency services and refuse building permits if these measures are not applied. A development should never be authorized if these security standards are not applied. “
“Go towards a more grouped urban planning”
“Firefighters have defended 4,402 homes throughout this summer in Gironde [pour une trentaine de bâtiments détruits à l’arrivée], who were either in the forest or on the edge, recalls the director of the DDTM. It is clear that we are dealing with local authorities to simplify the boundaries between urbanization and forest, to avoid the uncontrolled expansion of forests. We need to move towards more clustered urban planning. “
In Belin-Béliet, in southern Gironde, ten houses, barns and garages were destroyed by the Landiras fires this summer. “On these sectors that have burned [en bordure de forêt]the local urban plan (PLU) had already significantly limited construction rights since January 2019, and it is obvious that after these fires there will be no additional authorization “, assures Mayor Cyrille Declercq. On the rest of the country,” the building rights they only concern the center of the country, and for the periphery of the country it is not excluded that there is a new approach, but for the moment no decision has been taken “.”
Jean-Luc Gleyze for his part underlines that the ” net zero artificialization (Zan) of soils [qui va entrer en vigueur progressivement, pour s’appliquer aux collectivités à partir de 2050] it will have a strong impact on the way in which the territories will develop and for the mayors it will be increasingly difficult to imagine public equipment projects and be able to satisfy the needs of the populations. “Zan will inevitably raise the question of urban forms, and the episode we have just experienced will fuel this reflection,” says first departmental vice president, Christine Bost.
“Educating the population about the fire risk”
Second priority for the geographer: “to secure what already exists”, to separate urban areas from wooded areas. “The worst is the city under the forest and we will have to seriously question the future of these areas. Already very urbanized, the sector of La Teste, in the Arcachon basin, is more concerned. “Here 92% of the territory is subject to classification and it is no longer possible to build on the edge of the forest, explains the mayor of La Teste-de-Buch, Patrick Invitation (LR). On the other hand, we must do prevention. I’ll enforce the legal requirement of 50 meters of clearing around your home, because that’s not always the case. In my PLU (Local Urban Plan) I don’t want black buildings anymore, because they keep the heat. Finally, we will have to think about putting in place procedures to educate the population about the risk of fire. In Cazaux this summer the inhabitants were evacuated very quickly, without having time to take things, I think you should always have a bag ready at home. “
With 48,000 inhabitants evacuated during the summer in Gironde, it is indeed necessary to “work on crisis management”, Christine Bouisset abounds. “We saw this summer that there were traffic jams during the evacuation of Pyla. What would have happened if it had been necessary to evacuate urgently, under the pressure of the fire? So you have to be ready when it happens, through evacuation tests, raising awareness from an early age at school, repeated messages. “
Campsites will reopen “under different conditions”
Finally, there is the issue of campsites. Five establishments located at the foot of the Dune du Pilat were more or less destroyed by fires. “Safety has always been a priority for us,” says Franck Coudert, manager of the Dune-Les Flots Bleus campsite. We had invested two million euros to redo the campsite in a workmanlike manner, and the obligations regarding fire prevention had already been met: smoke detectors in mobile homes, fire extinguishers, a 50-meter area to be maintained around the campsite, etc. If tomorrow we have to add more, we will add more. “
“The President of the Republic promptly assured the campsites that they could reopen next season, but under slightly different conditions,” recalls Renaud Laheurte for his part. With fires, in fact, the landscape will change, as part of the forest has been destroyed, or it will be, when it is necessary to cut dry wood.
“A before and after” 2022
Soon “this will make these campsites visible” from the top of the dune, while these structures have been forced to make arrangements to have as little visual impact as possible, as the Pilat site has been classified. This will also result in fewer shaded areas for these structures. “We must therefore find a way to mitigate the impact they may have,” continues the representative of the state. We are working with them on this issue, and the reopening in the summer of 2023 will take place on a temporary basis. We could consider green sails to shade and hide buildings, it’s an option. “
Gathered in the Campyla association, the five campsites affected by the disaster help each other to find solutions. The Flots Bleus one still has buildings standing (the reception, the grocery store, the administration, the restaurant) and could, for this reason, be one of the first to reopen. Franck Coudert hopes for a reopening, even partial, “from next spring, as usual. “The lack of shade is a problem, he recognizes, however, and in fact we are thinking of installing shade sails on mobile homes and pitches, to accommodate people in the best conditions.”
“By the end of the year we will present a project to the authorities, continues the manager, who will tell us what we can or cannot do. We are interested in new energies, water recovery, reuse of wood for fences. We want to start over with timber frame construction rather than hard, and why not become a pilot site for camping? “
For all these actors it is now clear that there will be “a before and an after” at the fires of summer 2022.
