- Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Coste was sent by France to help the Australians fight the monster fires that consume the mainland.
- Several million hectares of forest have already been reduced to ashes.
- Nicolas Coste is a specialist in tactical lights. These are counterfires that are deliberately started on small areas to stem the progression of fires in progress. A risky technique that he masters perfectly.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Coste is one of the five French firefighters who will arrive as reinforcements Thursday morning in Australia to help the fire soldiers to stem the terrible fires which ravage the mainland island. Millions of hectares have already been reduced to ashes. On January 5, Emmanuel Macron announced that France would provide "immediate operational assistance" to Australia.
Head of the Cévennes-Aigoual territorial grouping based in Anduze, in the Gard, Nicolas Coste is a specialist in tactical fire, for which he is a zonal technical advisor at the school for the application of civil security. Tactical fire is a counter-fire started very precisely by firefighters. It consists in sacrificing a tiny part of the forest, to save a much larger part. "When the counter-fire front meets the fire front, the fire will go out by itself," details Commander Eric Agrinier, communication manager at Sdis du Gard. But for the remedy to be effective, strategic choices must be made upstream and the zones well defined. The goal is that the backfire does not cause more damage than the fire itself. This specialist work consists in defining suitable locations, calculated using reconnaissance on topographic maps or by helicopter ”.
Descendant of an ancestral practice
These means are in addition to traditional means (water bombers, human resources on land). France's competence in this area is recognized. Taught officially, tactical fire is also a tool included in the forest code. Tactical fire is a descendant of an ancestral practice widely applied by shepherds in the Cévennes who do prescribed burning. A way to create, at favorable times, spaces that will serve as support zones to limit large areas of fuel in summer.
Nicolas Coste's engagement in Australia is not a first. It regularly participates in operations abroad, as was the case during the violent fires that ravaged Catalonia in the spring and summer of 2019. "His contribution will be a small drop in the light of the disaster that is currently playing out in Australia," continues Eric Agrinier. But, while showing great humility, his presence and his know-how can allow in certain areas to help Australian colleagues in the areas where he will be engaged.
Record fires this summer in the Gard
In the south of France, the firefighters are, despite themselves, specialists in terms of fire. If the extent of the damage is incommensurate with the ecological disaster underway in Australia, the Gard was - on the scale of France - particularly affected by the fires this summer. A thousand hectares went up in smoke, the worst record for 20 years in the department.
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