2018 season: Firefighters mobilised to protect the forest and our fellow citizens from fires:
With 2017 having been the busiest season of the past decade in terms of forest fires, the fire service is once again on high alert for the 2018 season. With a number of high-risk areas, France has developed genuine operational and strategic expertise. This innovative and effective forest firefighting strategy is based on enhanced preventive measures, including operational interventions in high-risk areas as well as public awareness campaigns aimed at the general public.
Firefighters across France are taking part in the 2018 season to protect both the public and the forests through:
- A prevention policy aimed at informing the general public and those using forests and their surroundings. The French fire service is working to warn the public about how to prevent fires from starting and spreading in forest areas through awareness-raising activities on the ground. In particular, a prevention video is being shown to the general public during the 2018 Tour de France. You must never throw cigarette ends on the ground in a wooded area or out of your car window, and you must never light a fire in or near a forest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gMhMjMf3MI
- Constant monitoring to detect and assess the risk of forest fires: prioritising emerging fires to ensure that no situation is allowed to get out of hand. This strategy enables 95 per cent of fires to be extinguished before they reach one hectare.
The increase in demand, and consequently in the number of call-outs:
- Fire and rescue services are facing an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters linked to climate change.
- Areas prone to forest fires are increasingly calling for a ‘mass mobilisation’, whereby firefighters from other regions, along with their equipment, are brought in to provide reinforcements if necessary during particularly intense episodes, such as those seen in 2017.
✆ Emergency call: a single number – 112
112 is a free emergency number accessible throughout Europe; it allows you to contact the local emergency services, who will dispatch the appropriate resources. You can even dial 112 from a locked phone or one without a SIM card.
The fire service’s advice on preventing forest fires.
Precautions to take in the forest or its immediate vicinity:
- Check the weather forecast before heading into the forest;
- Carry a mobile phone with you so that you can alert the emergency services if necessary;
- Let your loved ones know your route;
- Stay on the marked paths;
- Never light a fire in a forest, in woodland or near such areas, even if it is a barbecue;
- Never throw cigarette ends into a wooded area or out of a car window;
- Be careful where you park your car: the hot exhaust pipe could set dry grass alight;
- Ensure that you camp in an authorised, safe and secure location;
- Please observe the restrictions on access to wooded areas.
Property near the woods:
Homes situated in woodland are subject to strict, specific regulations.
Please contact your local council and the nearest emergency services centre to find out about all the regulations you must comply with.
- Obligation to clear undergrowth around dwellings situated in or near woodland. Failure to comply with this obligation may result in a fine of up to 1,500 euros;
- Do not install plastic guttering;
- Do not store wood, heating oil or butane in the immediate vicinity of the house;
- In the event of a fire, and if there is a swimming pool on the property, make it available to the fire brigade;
- Do not plant vegetation too close to the house. Avoid planting Kermes oaks, cypresses, mimosas, eucalyptus trees, thorny plants and conifers, as these are highly flammable;
- Trim the branches of the trees so that they are more than 3 metres from the façade;
- Do not burn anything between April and September.
