Emmanuel Macron praised this Thursday, August 11 the “european solidarity“, announcing the arrival of European aid. To support France, Greece will dispatch two Canadair and Sweden two Air Tractor, Germany 64 firefighters and 24 vehicles and Poland 146 firefighters and 49 vehicles. Alexandre Jouassard, spokesman for Civil Security, questioned this Thursday on franceinfo the firefighter judges the extent of this aid “unpublished“. These firefighting reinforcements are “exceptional, but not new” according to him.
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Why were European resources called in against these fires?
Alexandre Jouassard : For our operational response, we “zoomed out” from the zone level to the department and then to the national level. And when we start to be limited in terms of capacity, with a commitment throughout the national territory, there is the European civil protection mechanism which is a solution. Until now, France often fed this mechanism by sending aid resources. We have always been the country that has sent the most modules to the European Union in recent years, especially last year with 250 women and men in Greece as well as Canadair drops in Greece, but also in Italy and Algeria. And this summer, we are the ones who are appealing for European aid. To have so many European air and land resources that will arrive is unprecedented. For the Greek means, they have already come at the start of the forest fire season. It is therefore exceptional, but it is not new.
How do these reinforcements fit into the teams that have already been on the ground for weeks?
We are used to working together, we carry out many exercises every year. We also hosted one of the major exercises this year during the French presidency of the European Union, Exercise Domino. We therefore know how to receive resources from foreign countries, what is called “Host nation support”. There is no problem in welcoming those who will join us and who will integrate into our system. The arbitration of land resources, when they arrive, will be done on a case-by-case basis, with obviously a regional organization, the objective being not to make the reinforcements cross too much distance.
What does having more people do?
The one-off European aid allows several things, in particular to distribute the devices. It also allows us to last longer, since our teams have already been mobilized for a month and a half. But in no case the objective is that the European teams supplement the national means. The aim is precisely to further increase our operational response. Yesterday [mercredi] 10,000 firefighters fought against forest fires throughout the national territory.