the Gironde unveils its new system for the summer

A blazing sky and flames on the ground ready to devour the pine forest. A fire broke out last night in the Dordogne. The firefighters wearily water the charred forest. “Since July last year, it hasn’t stopped, and the most serious thing is that it starts very early this year”, laments Lieutenant Fabrice Debec, head of the rescue center group in Périgueux (Dordogne). The specter of a new summer of fire hovers and worries especially in Gironde.

Planes prepositioned on site

The memory of thousands of hectares burning for weeks, and the images of firefighters out of breath last summer haunt people’s minds. In order not to relive this situation, the firefighters are unveiling an unprecedented device: 1 Dash plane and 4 Air Tractor planes will be prepositioned, joined if necessary, by 2 mobilizable Canadair planes and 11 additional planes. The challenge: to be able to cope with several simultaneous fire outbreaks. “The fact that we have a preventive detachment makes it possible to carry out aerial watch and to have a more efficient attack strategy”, says Marc Vermeulen, director of SDIS Gironde. A system supplemented by drones and land patrols responsible for spotting the first flames as quickly as possible.