The Minister of State and Minister for the Interior, Gérard Collomb, was visiting the Gard region on Thursday. Over the course of two days, he is keen to stand alongside the men and women who – directly or indirectly – work tirelessly, with courage and dedication, to ensure the safety of the French people in the fight against forest fires.
On his first day, the Minister decided to gain an in-depth understanding of the resources available at the Civil Security airbase and the maintenance and training centres in Nîmes-Saint-Gilles. First, he visited the huge hangar used for the maintenance of Civil Protection and National Gendarmerie helicopters.
The Dragons rescued 15,559 people in 2017
In France, a Dragon takes off every 30 minutes on average, and last year 15,559 people were rescued. Maintenance is a complex and essential task for ensuring an operational rate of at least 80 per cent for the helicopters, commonly known as ‘Dragons’. We were able to accompany the minister during his visit and get a behind-the-scenes look at a setting that is impressive to say the least, and which can sometimes resemble a real operating theatre.
Following a comprehensive and highly appreciated presentation by the Minister and the elected representatives, the Minister made a point of having his photograph taken with all the technicians and mechanics at the maintenance centre, whilst greeting them one by one. To round off the visit, he was presented with a model of an Airbus Helicopters EC-145 (formerly Eurocopter).
A 3,200 m² building for combating forest fires
At the end of this first visit, we cross the tarmac at Nîmes-Garons Airport and arrive at the new Nîmes Civil Protection Air Base (BSC), which was inaugurated last year. This 3,200 m² facility houses: the chain of command; the operations command centre; the three sectors – Canadair, Soft (Dash and Beech) and Tracker – enabling pilots to remain on standby, plan missions and debrief; training rooms necessary for maintaining skills and qualifications; an on-site catering facility to ensure optimal responsiveness in the event of a call-out, and rest areas for pilots returning from missions; and a technical department to oversee the maintenance of the aircraft to ensure they remain in operational condition.
The building was designed to be a functional space, optimising mission deployment times, and scalable to accommodate any future changes to the fleet. As a committed advocate for the protection of the Mediterranean forest, the BSC has been awarded the BDM (Mediterranean Sustainable Building) label, which takes into account environmental, social and economic aspects in line with the specific characteristics of the region.
70,000 firefighters and an air fleet
In 2016, 16,100 hectares of forest were destroyed by fire in mainland France. Within the Ministry of the Interior, the Directorate-General for Civil Security and Crisis Management (DGSCGC) is responsible for fighting these fires. It is headed by Prefect Jacques Witkowski.
To this end, it draws up fire-fighting plans in advance and continuously analyses the risk of fire. It also has significant human and material resources at its disposal: 70,000 firefighters trained to tackle forest fires, as well as a multi-purpose air fleet based at Nîmes-Garons, at the Civil Protection aircraft base (BASC). 23 water-bombing aircraft, 3 reconnaissance aircraft and 11 helicopters.
>> A little bit of gossip : During the night between Thursday and Friday, Gérard Collomb left the Gard for a few hours to visit police officers in Marseille, particularly those patrolling the northern neighbourhoods, following the Kalashnikov fire that targeted police crews from housing estates the night before last. It was an opportunity to show his support for them during this difficult time.
Anthony Montardy