The fires do not only affect the south of France. The manager of public forests warned on Wednesday of a high risk of forest fires in Ile-de-France and called for “vigilance”, particularly given the heat wave affecting France this week.
“The high temperatures associated with the lack of water raise fears” of fire outbreaks in the forest. “Today, the risk of fire spares no forest”, explained the national forest office (ONF) in a press release, underlining the placement of Ile-de-France in “high risk of forest fire “Friday and” maximum “Saturday, by Météo-France.
A human factor at the origin of one out of two fires
“In view of these forecasts and the large crowds expected in the coming days in the Ile-de-France mountains, the ONF calls for public vigilance”, recalling that the month of June “remains traditionally the period of the year when public attendance is the strongest in the Ile-de-France forests.
The office therefore calls on lovers of walks in the forest to adopt “responsible reflexes” and not to smoke or throw cigarette butts in the forest, as well as to avoid lighting campfires, bivouacs and barbecues.
One in two forest fires is due to the human factor, recalls the ONF, which specifies that the public forests of Ile-de-France have already experienced a dozen fires since the beginning of spring, the largest of which affected 8 hectares of vegetation in the Yvelines.