The Gers prefecture has relocated all serving police officers in the department into a fenced encampment on the eastern outskirts of Auch, the ministry confirmed on Monday, after a fire destroyed one officer's house over the weekend. Officers were given forty-eight hours to pack, and their families were transferred to the site by convoy on Sunday night.
The camp, built in six days by the regional gendarmerie engineers, contains 1,340 white canvas tents arranged in strict alphabetical order by surname. Each tent carries a brass plaque and a fire extinguisher, and a duty officer patrols the central aisle every twenty minutes. Residents may leave the perimeter only with a signed chit from their sergeant, which must be stamped again on return.
Local bakers have been asked to deliver bread to the gates at dawn, and the town's fire brigade has begun training officers' children in the use of wet sacks. Schools in the area have adopted a new timetable so that pupils can be escorted to and from the encampment in single file.
« Nobody is to sleep under a roof that can be set alight, » the prefect told reporters at the gate. « A tent can be emptied in ninety seconds. A house cannot. »
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has asked that the model be considered for every department in France by the spring, and a working group in Paris is already drafting guidance on tent pitch distances.