Tens of thousands of hectares vanished in a few days… In the face of the fires that devastate the Gironde, the Bouches-du-Rhône or Brittany, criticism is increasing about the aerial means made available to firefighters and civil security. Do we need more Canadair, those famous red and yellow planes that drop tons of water to try to stop the fire?
The question was put to the National Assembly to the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. “There are 21 planes and 35 helicopters, we have the largest firefighting fleet in Europe,” he replied, without specifying that these figures cover different devices.
“We have 12 Canadairs that can be deployed, we currently have 6 Dash -soon we will have 8- and three Beechcraft”, summed up last weekend on BFMTV Christophe Govillot, pilot of Canadair, who calls for new device orders.
The French firefighting fleet
The Canadairs: they are the spearheads of the fight, capable of pouring 6,000 liters of water per pass and refueling at sea or in a lake.
The Dash: These bombers are mainly used for prevention by guarding the territory and pouring, if necessary, 10,000 liters of water in one go. On the other hand, you need to land to fill these tanks.
The Beechcraft: They are not water bombers but reconnaissance and coordination aircraft essential for prevention.
Because this heat wave episode came as a reminder that the fires will multiply in the coming years. “The risk of fire is present everywhere in France,” warns Jean-Louis Pestour, national head of forest fires at the National Forestry Office (ONF), on BFMTV. “We also see that throughout the year, even in winter, there are a certain number of fires that occur (…) we are going towards an extension of the risk.”
Extension of the risk, and therefore extension of the fleet? For Anthony Chauveau, president of the AFP SPASDIS-CFTC firefighters’ union, it is “urgent to renew and increase Canadair’s dilapidated fleet.”
“When the fire appears, it is already a failure”
But the issue is not simple and some voices doubt the effectiveness of this measure. “What would be the use of multiplying them to infinity?” asks the former general secretary of the Southwest Foresters Union and author of a thesis dedicated to fire risk management, Christian Pinaudeau.
Is increasing Canadair’s number an admission of failure? Dressing the wounds instead of preventing the accident?
According to him, the challenge is above all to implement a national prevention strategy. “Prevention is the most effective and profitable firefighting weapon,” he explains, and especially calls for buffer zones around homes, to avoid “total urbanization” and, above all, to maintain road access.
However, prevention is the national strategy, which consists of monitoring any source of fire and reacting en masse from the first minutes. Of the tens of thousands of hectares burned each summer, how many have been saved?
renew the fleet
The renewal of the Canadairs is a sea serpent. In 2019, a Senate report recalled that two thirds of the aircraft are more than 25 years old. It must be said that these planes are expensive to buy (between 20 and 30 million euros), to use (15,000 euros per hour of flight), not to mention regular maintenance given their use in extreme situations.
critical maintenance
On BFMTV, Frédéric Harrault, Civil Security representative, came to remind us that the maintenance of a Canadair has nothing to do with another aircraft. “Suffers gigantic shocks” in particular when going to collect water. “So the maintenance of a Canadair is critical, you can’t play around with it.”
Towards a European solution?
Since 2019, the European Commission has effectively established a common fleet called RescEU. In reality, the devices belong to the States but are financed by the European Union. In the event of fires, the system makes it possible to come to the aid of the most affected countries. Last year, the French Canadairs left for Greece. This year, it is the Greek devices that have brought their help to the Gironde.
To this must be added a reflection on the management of forests, too often based on monocultures and sometimes poorly equipped for relief.
As for the new Canadairs, they could arrive for the next summer season. On Tuesday, European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic announced that the European Commission was in talks with aircraft manufacturers to buy new firefighting devices.
Source: BFM TV
