“Faced with climate change, we are faced with major events”, confirms the president of the National Federation of Firefighters. However, at the same time, some barracks are struggling with staff reductions.
Summer has not yet started, but several departments are concerned by alerts to the drought. While the vegetation is weakened early, the forest fire season now seems to start earlier and earlier. In April, more than 1,000 hectares burned in the Pyrénées-Orientales, affected by a historic drought. The department is also exposed to forest fire risk “Very important”, declared Wednesday, May 17 the prefecture, which calls in a press release To “a high level of vigilance”.
>> Fires: in the Pyrénées-Orientales, authorities and firefighters are preparing for a summer of all dangers
“Faced with climate change, we are faced with major events, deplores Jean-Paul Bosland, president of the National Federation of Firefighters (FNSP). To deal with this, we need to increase our workforce”, he declares, repeating this message for several months in the media.
In order to increase the response capacity, not only during the summer season, but also throughout the year, the FNSP calls for a massive recruitment of volunteers, who represent 78% of firefighters in France. She wants their number to increase to 250,000 in the next few years, while the Ministry of the Interior counts them 197,800 currently, according to the latest census. The federation is also asking for 50,000 professional firefighters, compared to 41,800 to date.
A “crisis of civic engagement”
Are these objectives realistic, when some territories are already struggling to fill the planning grids for daily operations and personal assistance? The number of volunteers has been shrinking for several years, with a decrease of 7,000 people between 2005 and 2020, according to the Ministry of the Interior. For example, the departmental fire and rescue service (Sdis) of Yonne needs 180 firefighters every day to ensure day-to-day operations. But the department is unable to recruit volunteers to hold on-call duty, especially in rural areas.
“We are in the midst of a crisis of civic engagement”, notes Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Roguier, head of the group of territorial units of Sdis de l’Yonne, and president of the Regional Union of Firefighters of Burgundy-Franche-Comté. In some rescue centers in Yonne, there is no one left during the day, warns the lieutenant-colonel. To face it, “a guard system is being deployed”. While in normal times, firefighters intervene in the centers closest to their homes, “some could now come from all over the department”, he details.
It is still necessary to make these volunteer firefighters available. During the fires in the summer of 2022 in the Southwest, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, called on employers to release them from their responsibilities so that they could join the barracks “everywhere on the national territory”. In March, the Sdis de l’Yonne had concluded only 81 agreements with employers so that they authorize them to be absent, in exchange for financial compensation, according to Republican Yonne. “It’s already good, but it’s not enough”, regrets Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Roguier.
However, the departments most regularly confronted with large-scale forest fires seem to be ahead of the challenge of crisis preparedness. Unlike the Yonne, thein Gironde, where nearly 30,000 hectares of its forest shared with the Landes went up in smoke last summer, does not encounter the same recruitment difficulties. Fires even awakened the desire to get involved. “Coming out of last summer, more people came forward”rejoices Commander Matthieu Jomain, from Sdis Gironde.
“The summer of 2022 will remain in the collective memory.”
Commander Matthieu Jomain, from Sdis Girondeat franceinfo
The Bouches-du-Rhône also easily fill their ranks. “We benefit from an urban fabric and a demographic density which allow us to have candidates”explains Colonel Jean-Luc Beccari, director of Sdis Bouches-du-Rhône. “We have succeeded in increasing our workforce, with more than 1,000 recruitments of volunteer firefighters in four years”he figures, adding that the number of professionals is also on the rise.
A summer scheme that begins in April
In this department where spectacular fires have so often marked the news, training in interventions against forest fires is part of the initial education. But this is not the case everywhere. Further north, thee Sdis Saône-et-Loire, for its part, has initiated nearly half of its teams to this type of action, explains André Accary, president of the departmental council of Saône-et-Loire (various right) and responsible for a ” flash mission, feedback”, which follows the fires of 2022. A quarter of its territory is covered by forests. In ten years, the fires of natural spaces there have been multiplied by eight, according to estimates from firefighters.
For the professionals interviewed, the main issue now lies in the spreading of human efforts over time. “Our summer system, which includes the preventive mobilization of 750 people especially on forest fires, now extends to the month of June, but also over the period of September and October”, details the boss of Sdis Bouches-du-Rhône. This yearTHE “first links” of the summer system were put in place around April 15. in the departement. Firefighters deployed have also come to reinforce those of the Pyrénées-Orientales.
On the political side, the approach of a new high-risk summerIMEPs began Monday to examine measures to better prevent forest fires. Among the solutions envisaged is the reinforcement of clearing obligations.