“These means are a good start, but it is not necessarily enough“, declared on franceinfo Friday October 28 Jean-Luc Gleyze, president of the department of Gironde and president of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Services (SDIS) of Gironde after the announcements of Emmanuel Macron to deal with the fires.
>> New Canadair, budget, tree planting… Emmanuel Macron announces a plan to fight forest fires
The Head of State announced an additional envelope of 150 million euros for the departmental fire and rescue services (SDIS) in 2023, in order to strengthen the fight against forest fires by new human and materials. This is “good news, but 150 million euros divided by 105 departments, that’s just over a million euros“, points out Jean-Luc Gleyze.
franceinfo: How do you judge the Head of State’s announcements?
Jean-Luc Gleyze: This is a first step, a first step. There are not the answers to all the questions, in any case, the answers to all the recommendations that we had been able to issue, in particular at the level of the departments of France. But there are also advances, we must welcome them in this respect and see how, then, they will be implemented.
You were hoping for Canadair bases in your department, but the head of the state didn’t mention it. Are you disappointed?
The Canadair production line must first get back into business. It takes several years to have additional Canadair. What was clearly indicated by the President of the Republic is that there would be ten water bomber helicopters which would be leased by the State and two which will be purchased. These are means that can, while waiting to have Canadairs, provide a form of response. He also mentioned a positioning that could be achieved in the Southwest. He did not specify where at this stage, but it could also be a result of better qualification of the risk.
Are means of action close to forests essential?
The time which is necessary for the arrival of the planes is always a time which is exaggerated in relation to the needs for processing incipient fires, that is to say fires as soon as they appear. They have to be processed very quickly and only the presence of aircraft on site allows us to guarantee this. Moreover, we have repeatedly diverted them from our own fires and each time, we have been able to put out fires in the Landes, Charente, Dordogne or Gironde thanks to the presence of planes on the Landes massif in Gascony.
Does the envelope of 150 million seem sufficient to you?
The 150 million euros announced are good news, but 150 million euros divided by 105 departments, that’s just over a million euros. We know the cost today, for example, of a forest fire defense truck. It is clear that these means it is a good start, but it is not necessarily sufficient to answer everything. And above all, the municipalities and even the departments elsewhere were not cited with regard to the impacts of the fires. The communal or departmental roads are in great pain because the trees are being evacuated after being cut down and the traffic today is out of the ordinary compared to the structure of these roads. So we were also expecting a solidarity fund there, which has not yet been announced.
Has replanting started in your department?
No, because you have to wait a year or two to guarantee the sanitary purge, to avoid that there are then parasites which develop on a new plantation. But in any case, the cuts have begun. And at this stage, we are having forests which are disappearing with a second trauma for the populations after the fires, it is now the disappearance of any forest landscape.