Currently 20 firefighters from Isère are mobilized in the South of France to lend a hand to their colleagues engaged in forest fires. After fighting the flames in the Gard, they are currently in the Vaucluse. Last week, they were 32 on the fire front, including Gilles Coudoulet.
For a week, he and his colleagues worked on several sectors. “In Gironde the tension had subsided a little, notes the commander, since the fire had been established for 10 days and therefore we were more in the phases of flooding the edges or managing the recovery attack… even if we were running from one side to the other to deal with the various recoveries. The attention is much more palpable and more tiring when you start on emerging fires as we had the opportunity to do on the fire of Gignac in the Hérault, and on the fire of Lussas in Ardèche: when we arrived the fire was still in full development.” In addition to the fire, there are the long hours on the road and the nights on the beds of when. The organizations of the firefighters are put to the test.
An exceptional mobilization
Reinforcements “forest fires” are sent every year in the departments which need it. All the firefighters involved, professionals and volunteers, have been trained for this specific work. “The Isère provides a forest fire reinforcement group within the South-East column for 15 weeks, specifies Commander Coudoulet, from the end of June until the end of September. There it is really exceptional in the sense that the column which is mobilized during the 15 weeks has already left 5 times; a normal year we go down 2 or 3 times in the season…” An exceptional year because the extent of the claims was also exceptional. The officer does the calculation: “Together we must have more than 200 firefighters who have already been hired.”
The range of storms
Fortunately the forest fires spared the department. But that does not mean that the risk does not exist warns Gilles Coudoulet: “yes the danger is significant. Just look at the foothills of the Chartreuse, the Vercors: the vegetation which is really grilled… so we have all the conditions to make large fires – without common measure with what is happening of course in Gironde or in the South of France, but we can have in particular difficult to access traffic lights which could cause us big problems so we really have to be vigilant and very careful at this time. Useful reminder: no campfires in the forest for example, anywhere in Isère… Lightning strikes could also trigger a disaster by setting fire to the very dry humus. “It’s a bit like what we had at the start of the season from mid-June to the end of June, remembers the firefighter: we have several lightning strikes that required us to intervene.”