This fire had covered Monday evening at 7:30 p.m. an area “of 450 hectares” in this commune of Haute-Corse located about twenty kilometers from Saint-Florent, a seaside village very popular with tourists in the summer period.
“The particularity of this fire is that it is completely inaccessible to land means, in a steep geographical area where there is no activity other than a little hiking”, added the officer, specifying that no ” habitation or exploitation” was threatened.
“We cannot say that the fire is fixed but the two edges are in clear regression”, said Monday evening Lieutenant-Colonel Thierry Nutti, duty officer of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Operational Center (Codis), after 56 drops from engaged helicopters, 60 from Pelican-type water bombers and six drops of retardant.
After a “rather calm” night of surveillance with “very favorable” weather conditions, in particular temperatures which dropped to 20-22 degrees Celsius and a humidity rate of more than 50%, the fire was “stable” Tuesday morning. “, with the presence of “a few hot spots visible from the village of Santo-Pietro-di-Tenda” but the “maintenance of the edges” in the state of Monday evening, he told AFP.
Aerial reconnaissance was planned before the deployment in the area of the helicopter intervention detachment (Dih) of the civil security of Brignoles (Var), specialized in work in difficult to access areas, which came as reinforcements with three helicopters.
A fourth water bomber helicopter from the Corsican rescue service will also be active to hoist “the forest fire commando of firefighters and foresters-sappers” on the ground with the aim of “treating all the edges and avoiding any recovery fire”.
A machine equipped with tank-type tracks will also try to “create land access” to get as close as possible to the fire.
A total of 70 people will be engaged in the field for a “long-term work” which will begin with “fairly good” weather conditions until 11:00 a.m.
On Saturday, several forests in Haute-Corse were closed due to a severe risk of fire and the affected area was considered “dangerous” for this risk, the authorities inviting people not to go there.
