France must be equipped with “more” firefighting planes, President Macron said today as he visited southwestern France, where fires have burned more than 200,000 hectares of forest.
The 22 planes with which the civil protection service has been equipped “have been enough for the last few years… Should we have more? The answer is yes,” said the French president, stressing that this increased fleet would be European and called for the ” reshaping an industrial strategy” for the manufacture of these aircraft.
Macron also praised the work of the various bodies, elected officials and other persons who have mobilized to extinguish the huge fires that have been ravaging the region for more than a week.
In the Gironde, 206,000 hectares of forest have charred since two fires broke out on July 12, 70,000 hectares in the La Teste-de-Bis region, not far from the very touristic Dunes of Pillas, and 136,000 hectares in the Llandiras sector. And 36,750 people have left their homes.
In the face of this destruction, Macron announced “a great national project to make it possible to plant trees in this forest”.
In front of the detailed maps of the fires that he presented to President Macron, Gironde fire chief Marc Vermeulen reported on the progress of the fires and the actions of firefighters in their efforts to contain them while protecting homes.
With the arrival of the heat wave, “the two fires literally intensified dramatically,” Vermeil told the head of state, referring in particular to “20-year-old pine trees that burst from the inside.” “We’ve never seen it,” he said, despite the fact that for nine days, firefighters also have to control “20 to 25 fires” every day.
From now on, “the situation is more favorable because the weather conditions have returned to more normal levels”, he emphasized, assuring, however, that it will be necessary to “monitor” the ground “until the October rains”.
Two firefighting aircraft, a Canadair and a Dash, crossed the sky soon after, prompting much applause.
The increase in extreme weather events is a direct consequence of global warming according to scientists, with greenhouse gas emissions simultaneously increasing their intensity, duration and frequency.
Source: Capital
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