As Marseille reels from early summer wildfire, France rolls back environmental protections

As Marseille reels from early summer wildfire, France rolls back environmental protections

Hello and welcome. You’re watching France 24. Coming up in Max, firefighters stabilized the wildfire that uh brought flames to the outskirts of France’s leg second largest city. The blaze though far from extinguished. More than 300 treated for smoke inhilation. Fires also easing it seems in Spain’s Cataloonia region. Matid Celeles of Lufial newspaper is in the Mediterranean port city as Ukraine picks up the pieces from another massive onslaught of drones, more than 700. We’ll review that uh cabinet meeting in Washington where Donald Trump seems to have disowned his defense secretar’s order to pause anti-aircraft battery deliveries for Ke. A surprised quintet of African leaders invited for lunch at the White House. The presidents of Liberia, Seneagal, Gabo, Moritania, and Guinea Bisau. David Smith in Washington tells us why. Coming up in the next hour, the France 24 debate. Will Kenya’s heavy-handed police silence Gen Z protesters, 50 killed in the past two weeks of demonstrations? What can a largely leaderless movement obtain in the face of this crackdown? President R, who insists he’s not budging, was this, as some have called it, an avoidable showdown? This in one of Africa’s few democracies. Your reactions on the hash F24 debate. [Music] Hello everyone, I’m Fran Par. Firefighters in Mar say the blaze has been stabilized. Uh the one that brought flames to the uh 16th Aundis mall, forcing hundreds of evacuation and hundreds more to go to hospital with smoke inhalation stabilized but not yet put out France which is preparing for the worst. It’s uh that firefighters are nothing new in the French Riviera. However, this early in the season, that’s what’s alarming the locals. Charlotte Hughes has the story. In this village in southwestern France, local authorities are doing all they can to protect the environment. There’s a high risk of wildfires. Access to the hills is banned until the end of the week. A ban that suggests a grueling summer ahead with the threat of fires looming large. Last year in France, 45,591 outbreaks were recorded by the start of July. 5,97 have already been reported for the same period this year. Partly responsible for this increase is a particularly rainy March that made vegetation more dense. With the June heat wave and periods of drought, forests have become highly flammable. In Mari, there was 99% less rainfall this year than usual. a lack of rain that has been worsening for several years now, as is the case in the city of Narburn, where only 5.4 millimeters of rain fell last month. For firefighters, this points to a high-risisk summer. Conditions in the 30 3030 rule are a particular cause for concern. Temperatures in excess of 30°, winds in excess of 30 km hour, and air humidity below 30%. A dangerous mix, especially when combined with a particular kind of wind known as traantine wind. It’s a continental wind, which means it has much less humidity than if it came from the sea. This means it acts like a haird dryer on areas that are already fully dried out. In light of the increased fire risks, new technologies are being developed, including cameras that use AI for early detection of blazes. And for more let’s cross to Marid Celeles is correspondent for Le Figo newspaper. Thank you for being with us here on France 24. Thank you. So the order was keep the windows closed. Is that the case behind you there? Not where we live but actually it was now the people are allowed to go back to their places. What that what the authorities said because the fire is almost put out. your the authorities said that like a couple um couple couple minutes ago. But yeah, at the beginning it was really really frightening because I’ve lived there for like 10 years and for the very first time we smelled the fire. We still saw also you know the smoke even if it was quite far away from where we work here at the center of M. That’s why it was quite impressive for the people here in Mari. Yeah. For people who don’t know uh the city uh you have the old port and then around it it’s hills and uh it’s in this it’s in the hills of the 16th small where they were the most worried. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason why it was quite the people the authorities were quite frightened about what happened is because the 1500 you said it’s a place where poor people live. Lots of people live there and uh we were quite frighten frightened that the of the damages of the fire could down but hopefully there were no die no people died in this fire and but it could be it could have been really worse. Yeah, the uh the fires uh in that northern part and as you can see from this map uh the fires located between the city and the airport. Yeah. Yeah. Actually the the fire started because of a car which burned on the highway nearby and because of the winds because the winds blew really really really strong. The fire spread to the hills first to um a city near Marseilles, 15 kilometers from Marseilles called Leipen Mirabu and then in two hours the fire burned 30 hectares which shows how how fast the fire went yesterday. Matles, it’s been a week where uh in the French parliament they’ve rolled back uh some environmental legislation. This is a topic that had seemed to go on the back burner uh in the rough and tumble of French politics. You know, how to decarbonize the the economy, how to prep how to prepare for the new normal with increased extreme weather events? Uh where you are is the conversation changed now? I mean, I I don’t think I understand. Sorry. Is is there I is does this put a newfound um uh urgency when it comes to the whole question of climate change which had been on the back burner. I’m not sure actually uh firstly now in in Mi they we have to you know uh go on and like try to have people which have lost their houses and so on. I think the next after we will talk about the political consequences that people should think about but now it’s not the priority now in Mar because you know like 10 10 houses has been completely destroyed 400 4,000 400 sorry people have been evacuated so now the most important thing now it’s after the crisis matzes many thanks for joining us from the Mediterranean port city of Main thank you thank you I will sing me.

A wildfire that reached France’s second-largest city and left 110 injured was in ‘’net regression”, after racing toward the historic Mediterranean port city, but was not yet fully extinguished. Spurred by exceptionally hot summer winds, the fire grounded all flights to and from Marseille and halted train traffic. All the while, the French government has been rolling back several notable environmental policies in 2025 and weakening regulatory commitments both domestically and within the EU. In the aftermath of the wildfire, FRANCE 24’s François Picard welcomes Mathilde Ceilles, Journaliste at Le Figaro in Marseille.
#Marseille #Wildfire #ClimateChange

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