It’s burning all over France. The third heat wave of the year reached its peak this Friday with between 38 and 41 ° C in the country, a heat which exhausted the hundreds of French firefighters at the front on a host of fires. Three times more hectares in France have burned than the annual average for the past ten years, and the year has been a record in the European Union since the start of surveys in 2006. Fortunately, European solidarity is on the move. But what are our neighbors doing to help us fight the flames? 20 minutes takes stock of the reinforcements.
Firefighters from elsewhere
On the front line to taunt these fires, there are obviously our firefighters. Currently, 1,100 French firefighters are fighting night and day a resumption of fire from the gigantic Landiras fire while in July, 14,000 hectares have already gone up in smoke in this area. 361 European firefighters took the road to the south-west of France to support us.
Thursday afternoon, 65 German firefighters and 24 vehicles have already arrived. Dozens of other firefighters are expected in the coming days with their trucks from Romania, Poland and Austria. “The Romanians and the Germans will be on the ground tomorrow morning at dawn,” assured the press Martin Guespereau, delegate prefect for defense and security in Gironde. To strengthen our workforce.
water bombers
In the battle against fire, water bombers are the sinews of war. French civil protection has 22 aircraft but, with global warming, they are becoming insufficient and French President Emmanuel Macron has announced his intention to reinforce our (aging) fleet in the years to come. Meanwhile, four planes from the EU firefighting fleet have been sent from Greece and Sweden following a request from French authorities, the EU executive said.
Italy will also send “several Canadair”, announced Emmanuel Macron. The President of the Republic spoke by telephone with the head of the Italian government, Mario Draghi, “to coordinate on the reinforcements”, it was specified in his entourage. The European firefighting fleet is made up of twelve planes and one helicopter from six Member States, which are positioned in Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden. It is fully funded by the EU. Paris has also acquired two additional Canadairs for 2025 as part of a grouped European order.
Sky monitoring
Beyond the metal birds that pour cubic meters of water on our dying forests, European surveillance is also organized from the sky. The Commission has announced that the EU’s Copernicus satellite has been activated by Paris to collect essential data for first responders on burnt areas. Copernicus is the Earth monitoring program set up by the European Union.
Since 2014, eight satellites were put into orbit around the blue planet to observe it from every angle. The Satellite “Sentinel-2” is a valuable tool for monitoring the state of vegetation and forests in particular. This view of the sky allows firefighters to better understand the trajectory of a forest fire and to organize their response accordingly.