The Minister Delegate for Local Authorities, Caroline Cayeux, wishes to strengthen European mobilization in the face of forest fires, through the increase of air resources and the standardization of operating methods, according to a press release published on Tuesday.

“Faced with the dramatic forest fires that raged this summer, European solidarity showed our fellow citizens that Europe was ready to protect us.

From now on, it is necessary to resize the civil protection mechanism in the light of the challenges of tomorrow, in particular that of climate change”, declared Caroline Cayeux after an exchange Monday with her European counterparts.

An "increase in air resources and the strengthening of their financing"

According to a press release from the Ministry of the Interior, Caroline Cayeux brought to this meeting "French priorities and requests from partner States and the European Commission", namely in particular the "increase in air resources and the strengthening their funding.

In August, Emmanuel Macron had already estimated that France should acquire "more" firefighting planes and called for "redeploy an industrial strategy" to build these devices.

A “rapprochement of operating methods between States”

Caroline Cayeux also called for a “rapprochement of operating methods between States”, via joint training and training projects.

During the summer, up to 10,000 French firefighters a day were mobilized by the fires which ravaged 62,000 hectares of forest, a record for the largest area burned at this stage of the year since the start of satellite data. in 2006, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).

Eight planes, 101 vehicles and 364 firefighters from other European countries intervened as reinforcements according to the ministry, which salutes the “mobilization” of the partner States and the “efficiency” of the European crisis center.

Company

Gironde: More than 70 hectares of forest destroyed in a new fire

Planet

Fires in Brittany: Lookouts will monitor the peaks of the Monts d'Arrée during the summer

  • Planet

  • Government

  • Fire

  • Firefighters

  • European Union (EU)