00:00I'm here now at the port of Lacanau. Lacanau is a town, it's a tourist spot by the coast just
00:06west
00:07a couple of hours of Bordeaux. We're currently at the port which is where a lot of residents
00:13are getting water. It's also where people are distributing food. So earlier we went on one
00:18of the patrols where local volunteers are getting on the backs of pickup trucks which are naturally
00:26in very high demand and going through these areas that have been just decimated, flattened
00:32by the fires. So they're going around and they leave out food and water for animals
00:39of which we saw a few just lone deer running through the woods. They're also signalling to firemen
00:48where the fires are so the fires are breaking out. We saw fires breaking out in some of the devastated
00:55woodland and the firefighters are coming in and putting up barriers of sand to stop it spreading.
01:04But a lot of them have been brought in from outside so the locals are really essential I think in
01:10helping them to avoid the wrong roads and to go on the right ones and to get to the destination
01:15as
01:16quickly as possible. I've come over here because it's a bit quieter but you can see
01:22you've got these tractors that are picking up water from the port. They're pumping it out of the mariner
01:30to take it down to where the fires are which are literally just the other side of the lake. There's
01:35a
01:36big lake in the region and I can see smoke. It's a bit unclear, it's a bit bright, it's so
01:42hot. But
01:44there's smoke coming out and so they will go and deliver that. We're about to go on a second run.
01:50We're picking up food here to take to the volunteers. It's tiring work. You're carrying huge weights in
01:5935 degree heat. You know I spoke to some people they said they have friends who are working for 15
02:07hours a day just as volunteers helping firefighters to get where they're going. The mask helps but there
02:14is a there's a definite taste of smoke in the air. There's ash. So what we have here behind me
02:21is a tent that I understand has been set up for refugees just in case at the moment. Touch wood,
02:28it's empty. But it's also an area where some of the volunteers can come and rest if they need to.
02:35So it's all about relief. There's a huge community spirit here. You know you hear from people who
02:42their restaurants have been closed but they are cooking food and bringing it down here so that people
02:48can eat. I'm with someone, she's a painter, she's an events organiser and they've had to close their
02:54business. So she is now also every day for the last four days going out and risking herself to
03:05help people and stop the fire from reaching her town. You're saying these are all just people from
03:11the village, people that live here all the time. They know that their village is exposed so they help in
03:16any way they can. They help also a lot of firemen because it's a lot of new firemen here. The
03:22firemen also talk to the local people that this is the first time in their career that they see the
03:28fire like this. So the local people help the firemen because the firemen don't know the forest roads
03:35and we know each other. We communicate really well each other by the WhatsApp and we know exactly the
03:42places that we are supposed to go with the water to help. So the local people are also communicating
03:49with the firemen giving them advices where they are supposed to go. A lot of these houses are made
03:55of wood they're not built for these conditions so they know what's at stake and she said I've got a
04:02grab bag I'm ready to go but you know it's it's it's a lot for everyone there's immense stress but
04:11people are holding it together they're all everyone I've spoken to has been very praising of just how
04:16the the community has come well together. There's some talk of of looting but it sounds rare people say
04:23don't pay too much mind to it. Overall I think I understand that people are helping and trying to
04:31overcome this as a challenge it's been described as a war.
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