Fires: France relatively little affected this year, despite numerous outbreaks of fire

2023-10-03 08:43:35

This summer, the planet was widely affected by fires. Charred forests in Canada, Greek islands devastated by fires in the Mediterranean… And in the middle of all this: France is an exception. The authorities have recorded 14,558 ha burned since the start of the year compared to 72,000 last year. The annual average is around 15,000 ha gone up in smoke. The weather conditions were better this year and the mobilization of fire prevention and firefighting resources was very strong.

“We can no longer talk so much about forest fire season,” says Jean-Paul Bosland, president of the National Federation of French Firefighters (FNSPF). “There were a lot of fires at the start of the year, with almost 10,000 ha burned, which we had never seen.” In the Pyrénées-Orientales – where one of the worst droughts in the history of this department is occurring – 1,000 ha burned in April on the edge of Cerbère, a village on the border with Spain, raising fears of the worst for the summer season.

More than 10,000 fires started

The number of fire outbreaks remains high: 12,814 in 2023, compared to 19,821 in 2022 and 9,069 in 2021. “We are able to contain them thanks to the doctrine of massive attack on emerging fires, of less than five hectares,” specifies Jean-Paul Bosland.

Christophe Chantepy, expert in defending forests against fires (DFCI) for the National Forestry Office (ONF), believes that the lull this summer (in terms of burned areas) can be explained by a combination of three factors: the weather, mobilization of means of control and prevention and better awareness by the population of the risk of forest fires.

“We were lucky to have quite a bit of precipitation at the end of spring. The deep drought of the soil is still problematic but the vegetation in the northern part of France benefited from the rains at the start of summer. The risk is rather confined to the Mediterranean coast, as it was historically,” underlines Christophe Chantepy.

In Corsica-du-Sud, the toll is “very low” according to the director of Sdis Jean-Jacques Peraldi, with 70 fires for 30 ha burned. Same observation in Haute-Corse: 261 ha of fires, compared to 594 ha last summer. The Var counted 29 forest fires for 11 ha burned. “We did not have wind just after the heatwave periods like in 2021 or 2022. We had a little bit of water at one point. So all this means that the factors were not in phase at the same time. However, it was a risky year, due to high temperatures,” explains Éric Grohin, director of Sdis du Var.

After the fires of last summer, President Emmanuel Macron announced a “new strategy”, with financial and human resources and additional Canadairs. The departmental fire and rescue services (Sdis) anticipated by prepositioning firefighters and equipment (water bombers, helicopters, light vehicles) as reinforcements in risk areas. “Last year, the tensions created by the fires throughout the territory hampered the sending of reinforcements to the South. This year, they were able to be mobilized,” says Christophe Chantepy.

Air resources have been particularly reinforced with nine additional planes or helicopters, increasing the fleet of aircraft from 38 in 2022 to 47 in 2023. Gironde, where 30,000 ha burned last summer, benefited from the arrival a Puma helicopter, a Dash water bomber and four Air Tractor planes in early July. Early detection of fires has also been strengthened with the deployment of three drones, video surveillance cameras, watchtowers and patrols. In the future, “these new means will be put to the test during a more intense year in terms of large fires,” concludes Christophe Chantepy.