‘Wildfires in south of France becoming more widespread, challenging to manage over past 10-15 years’

‘Wildfires in south of France becoming more widespread, challenging to manage over past 10-15 years’

We can now bring in Colonel Fedik Ao, a spokesperson for the French Civil Security and Crisis Management Agency. Thank you so much for coming in and speaking to us uh here on the program today. What is the situation on the ground right now? Situation is that we have now day fire since three days. Uh firefighters and military unit are fight are fighting against the this fire. Uh it’s one of the major one we have since the last decades mobilizing lot of means and uh and firefighters. So why is it so difficult to contain this particular fire right now? What are the conditions the firefighters are dealing with? Since the last month, we have faced complicated seasons uh summer very hot uh with period of chicle and uh and then the vegetation is dry. So we we were fearing some wind uh the last days and then this wind uh has pushed the fire uh as we have seen on the on the last three days uh in this area. So the the French environment minister says the fire is advancing but at a slower pace. Is that a good sign? Right now it is uh the last hours the the wind has decreased. So uh we are using this period to uh to do some uh tactics to uh to try to fight a fire using water using counter fire and uh and to take advantage of this situation before the the wind could increase in the coming days. So I saw that 11 firefighters were reportedly injured. Are they okay? What what happened to them? Yes, a few minor things uh due to the to the fire to the to the condition to work with with the closest in a very hot uh area and we have one truck who have faced a crash accident and the the four firefighters inside have been uh have been hurt in the in the crash. So, how many people have been evacuated from the area? I don’t have the exact figure at this point. Uh the evacuation is really the last resort. when we know that the blaze would come to the house and it’s always tricky to to this to do this because uh pushing the people outside could be risky for them. So uh we really do it uh in the last resort and we prefer people to stay inside the house uh they are protected inside if they take care of the the hair and uh and the surrounding. Now I spoke to a professor yesterday who said that these kind of events uh fires heavy flooding is going to happen more and more frequently. Uh what sort of prevention measures does your does the department take to prevent uh from fires even happening in the first place? We do many and we have to because we see that since the last 10 15 years uh this fire become bigger uh and uh and more complicated to to manage. Yeah. So we have to do a lot of thing. First to do more sensibilization to explain to people what are the what is the good behavior in order not to trigger this uh this kind of fire like like cigarettes like motors like barbecue and thing like this. uh and then since 3 years now we have the the forecast the weather forecast of the forest uh then to uh to uh prevent when the some places uh like forest are in a very critical situation and to avoid people to get in these forests. So it’s a lot to do to do this prevention process in a moment. A couple of years ago uh I remember in the south of France there was a project to use goats to eat the dry vegetation. Is that something that that that is happening? And if it is successful, why is it not happening at a larger scale? Because it’s a cheap method, isn’t it? To to fix the dry vegetation problem. It is it is for some places that are let without uh agriculture or but the goats won’t eat the the the feet of the the sheet of the forest. So we are we have to uh to do this kind of initiative which are very good but not only we have to manage better the forest uh in order to uh to do some prevent uh preventing places to break the the strong uh the strength of this fire. So are you confident uh do do you have an estimation of when uh firefighters on the ground right now in the region of earth will be able to contain this fire? Do they any estimation in like the next coming hours, coming day? So in the coming hour we expect to stop the the progression of the fire taking advantage of the wind with decreasing. So in the coming days we’ll try to really do the circle of the fire and to make it not uh going uh larger and then it it will take weeks probably uh weeks to uh to finish the extension then to to put the water everywhere and to avoid having any uh point that could start a new fire again. And we still don’t know what caused this place today. Not at this point. The Je is in charge of inquire the origin of the fire. Colonel AO, thank you so much for coming in and speaking with

France’s largest wildfire in decades continued to burn and spread Thursday, though at a slower pace, after having already ravaged more than 160 square kilometers (62 square miles) in the south of the country and claiming one life, local authorities said. The blaze, which started Tuesday and tore through the Corbières massif in the Aude region, has remained uncontained despite the deployment of over 2,100 firefighters and several water bomber aircraft. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24’s Delano D’Souza welcomes Lieutenant-Colonel Frédéric Harrault, spokesperson for the of the French Civil Security and Crisis Management Agency (DGSCGC).
#Wildfire #Environment #France

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