August 15 promises to be less festive this year. Due to the drought and the danger of fires, many fireworks scheduled for Sunday or Monday have been canceled. At least thirty prefectures have indeed passed orders banning fireworks in their department during this August 15 long weekend.
It includes the four Breton departments (Côtes-d’Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan) as well as Bouches-du-Rhône, Landes, Aveyron, Lot-et-Garonne, Cres, Correz, Haute-Vienne. , Loire, Haute Loire, Drôme, Ardèche, Dordogne, Vosges, Moselle, Rhine, Enne, Mayenne, Charente, Ver-Marne, Savoie, Rhône, Haute Saône or even the four departments of Auvergne: Allier, Cantal, Ver. – Loire and Puy-de-Dôme. In Haute-Garonne, fireworks have been banned in the Toulouse and Mouret districts.
A similar decree was issued in the Gironde, with one exception. “Only fireworks on or in the direction of the ocean or the Gironde estuary may be authorized by the mayors after a risk analysis carried out with the assistance of the departmental fire and rescue service.“, shows the prefecture.
Government guidelines
The Pyrénées-Atlantiques also banned fireworks on August 15, except for those announced in advance by prefectural organizers. The organizing municipalities, which are required to announce at least one month before the fire, are therefore free to maintain their pyrotechnic display if they wish. This is the case, for example, in Biarritz. The same in Isere, Haute Rhône, Somme or Saint-Étienne. In Seine-Maritime and Eure, only pyrotechnic shows organized by professional pyrotechnicians were allowed. In Haute-Savoie, they can stop if they shoot more than 200 meters away from wooded areas and burning natural areas.
In the Vendée, if the prefecture has not imposed a ban, it has sent a letter to the municipalities of the department, asking them to postpone or even cancel the fireworks scheduled for this weekend. Several municipalities have decided to follow this recommendation, such as La Tranche-sur-Mer, Notre-Dame-de-Monts or Apremont. Elsewhere in France, municipalities have decided to cancel themselves, such as Loire-Atlantique, Marne or Ardennes.
Prefectures that ban fireworks displays are actually following government guidelines. On Friday, Home Affairs Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote to prefects asking them to “be especially vigilant“even because of the cancellation of the traditional pyrotechnic shows on August 15”.increasing the risk of firescaused by drought. The historic drought that has caused many large-scale fires in France in recent weeks has caused the burning of thousands of hectares.
Source: Le Figaro
