Fires in the Var: a history of destructive forest fires

A firefighter responds to a blaze in the countryside.

"On August 16, a forest fire broke out in the commune of Gonfaron, in the Var department. After several days of intense effort (more than a thousand men deployed), the fire was fully extinguished. Unfortunately, the fire caused the death of two people, and disfigured the Maures massif, having ravaged an area of 6977 hectares according to the latest satellite observations.

This is officially the most extensive fire in mainland France for 31 years, and the major fires of late summer 1990... having already affected the Var department and this same Maures massif. After all, the Var department has a very large vegetation area (58.3% of its surface is wooded, representing over 350,000 hectares). The Sainte-Baume, Maures, Estérel, Haut-Var and Monts Toulonnais massifs are all extremely exposed to the risk of fire.

 Unfortunately, history shows that the biggest fires in France have occurred in this département. The Maures massif is probably the one that has been most frequently affected in recent decades, with multiple fires ravaging tens of thousands of hectares in total. "

 Credits: https://www.meteo-paris.com/actualites/incendies-dans-le-var-une-histoire-de-fires-de-forets-destructeurs

August 22, 2021

Message from our customer dated August 23, 2021

We received this message from one of our customers dated August 23, 2021 : 

"Hello
We live in Cogolin in the Var, we suffered the fire and you SAVED our lives. We have 2 tanks of yours 30 and 40 m3, 2 motorcycle pumps, watered from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. to save house and land.

However, some grass has burned around the tank, in my hand I didn't feel any big burns, do you think it will resist when I fill it???"

Yann Lebel

So we got in touch with our customer and visited the site to understand and assess the flexible tank. Despite the presence of a sustained fire around the flexible tank, with the trees, some of which were less than 50 cm from the tank, all charred, the flexible tank was unharmed and showed no leaks.

Customer testimonial: The film

The text of the film transcribed

"The fire came through the canals, it was very very dense."

"You can see the intensity of the fire. There was grass around the periphery of the tank which was full, it's 1m40 high. And the fire spread all around and set fire to the tree that's here."

"There was a stump too that was glowing. And the fire spread everywhere, [...] with an unbelievable intensity of heat."

"It's a cork oak, so the leaves turn black like that [...] like the white oak over there which is all burnt, [...] very strong, very very strong intensity of heat. And so the tank didn't leak, much to my amazement, and I used it to regenerate my stocks in the upper part. It was a great night. "

Press articles: Fire in Cogolin

Find here all the articles that appeared in the press as well as testimonials:

Back to top of page