A NUMBER of forest fires broke out across the Dordogne in the past few days, but fortunately the pompiers were able to bring them all under control.
A cigarette butt is being blamed for the start of a fire that started at Saint-Jean-de-Côle near to Salignac-Eyvigues in the east of the Dordogne.
Over the weekend a large fire in la Double forest near La Roche-Chalais and Eygurande required 230 pompiers and saw around 90 heactares of land burnt.
Around 20 hectares of grassland was burnt near Beaumont-du-Périgord that took around two hours to bring under control, whilst a fire on a camp site near Monpazier saw the pompiers take around an hour to deal with it.
By far the strangest incident was a rotisserie truck shedding hot coals that started a number of road side fires along the route between Saint-Avit-Senieur and Molières.
Water was dropped on the fires by a helicopter and 60 pompiers dealt with the flames, with local officials saying around 25 hectares were burnt.
How many fires in the Dordogne?
In total there have been more than 50 fires in the Dordogne since 1 August, 2022, with the pompiers soon getting on top of the fires but there has still been more than a 100 hectares of land burnt.
A number of pompiers from the Dordogne have been deployed to a large fire that has broken out in Gironde and the Landes, which has already seen 6,000 hectares burnt and 10,000 people evacuated, with 17 homes lost to the flames.
The Dordogne Préfecture has been stressing the importance of taking care when out and about with the current dry conditions, especially as nine out of ten fires are caused by human actions.
On Wednesday 17 August, 2022, the Dordogne Préfecture announced a relaxation of the warning level for the risk of forest fire in the region..
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