As summer sets in with its heat, the risk of fire returns everywhere in France. Which departments are most affected?
The memory of the fires that hit the Gironde in the summer of 2022 are still in everyone’s mind. This year, France hopes not to relive such events and the government announced, during the spring, to deploy several means to try to stem the fires that break out more quickly and avoid new disasters. A section was devoted to the prevention and anticipation of possible fires. Thus, a map of the risks in each department is drawn up, day by day, according to various meteorological parameters (temperature, rain, wind strength, air humidity) but also according to the state of dryness of the vegetation. It allows you to have a view of the two days to come.
However, it is not a question of forecasting but of informing about the risks. Four alert levels are established: low (green), moderate (yellow), high (orange), very high (red). This does not bode in any way for a fire to come but gives information on the situation of the vegetation in each department.
At this stage, a “moderate” danger is noted in several departments:
- Var
- Bouches-du-Rhone
- Aude
- Val d’Oise
- Yvelines
- Essone
- Moselle
- Meurthe et Moselle
In these departments, “weather conditions do not significantly increase the risk of the start and spread of forest and vegetation fires compared to summer normals”, indicates Météo-France, but “the risk of fires can be locally high.
What prevention and intervention system in the face of forest fires?
From compulsory and facilitated measures for the preventive maintenance of forests to the strengthening of cooperation between agricultural and forestry circles, via suitable reconstruction projects, French forests will be better protected against outbreaks of fire. The legislative text reinforces measures already announced such as the “powerful rearmament” of firefighters, promised by Emmanuel Macron last October: more bombers and land vehicles available, 180 million euros allocated to services Departmental Fire and Rescue (SDIS) or increasing the fleet of French Canadairs to 16 planes by the end of the mandate. What concrete measures will be put in place? Will this reduce the loss of hectares of forest?
The departments at risk of fire better identified
The risk of fire is no longer confined to the southern part of the country, the fires observed in Finistère in the summer of 2022 have proven this. The first step to better protect forests is therefore to put an end to “the heterogeneous preparation of territories for the risk of fire” according to the Girondin LREM MP and rapporteur for the Law proposition, Sophie Panonacle. The means of intervention must be able to be mobilized throughout the territory and no longer be concentrated solely on the southern half of France. Legislation must also put an end to this distinction of territories. The legislative proposal thus provides that the areas and departments at risk of fire are “defined by joint order of the ministers responsible for the forest, the environment and civil security”.
Forest maintenance made easier and more controlled
“The French fire management strategy is based on two pillars: preventive work to limit fire outbreaks, and an immediate and massive fight against incipient fires”, writes Sophie Panonacle in the foreword to the bill. Which provides several measures supposed to facilitate the preventive maintenance of forests or force forest owners to maintain their land.
- Risk prevention plans. Documents allow the administrative level to establish prevention policies for forest fires: forest fire risk prevention plans (PPRif). But these mandatory plans in areas considered to be at risk take a long time to draw up and are still insufficiently numerous. Parliament plans to facilitate the preparation of its documents. The same goes for the sustainable management documents (DGD) which make it possible to better maintain the forest and “effectively prevent the risk of fire” according to the deputy for Eure-et-Loir Luc Lamirault, co-rapporteur of the text. These DGDs could become mandatory as soon as they own 20 hectares of land (compared to 25 today) and forest owners could be better supported in the implementation of management policies.
- The clearing. This is one of the main maintenance measures and “the most effective against the spread of fires”, insists Sophie Panonacle. The legal clearing obligations (OLD) already in place could therefore be reinforced with the permission to clear brush without prior authorization being necessary (except for trees with tall stems), a reminder of the responsibility of an owner of evacuate slash cuts and branches and the possibility of having to clear brush to a depth of 100 meters instead of 50. To further encourage compliance with OLDs, the financial penalty incurred by forest owners could be increased, as well as community control measures.
- The measures of the agricultural world. Forests and agricultural areas are often adjacent and “agricultural abandonment [qui] limits maintenance of territories, cuts in vegetation and forest partitioning, promotes the spread of fires. Conversely, dynamic and well-maintained agricultural land is a major risk prevention asset”, underlines Luc Lamirault. Farmers who have often mobilized alongside firefighters during the outbreak of “mega fires” should be invited to continue the efforts with the maintenance of their land, the suspension of certain works in risky periods against indemnities or even with an incentive exemption from the payment of the compensatory indemnity for clearing.
- citizen vigilance. Another kind of preventive action should be strengthened: that aimed at citizens. “Nine out of ten fire starts are of human origin and it is estimated that half of them are due to recklessness or dangerous behavior”, recalls Anthony Brosse, deputy for Loiret and member of the sustainable development committee. and land use planning. The bill anticipates a “national day of resilience” to raise awareness among the French about the risks of fire and plans to include in the law a ban on smoking “in the woods and forests. […] and up to a distance of 200 meters from these woods and forests during periods of risk”.
Firefighters better equipped to fight fires
Preventive measures must considerably reduce the risk of fire or, if necessary, the spread of flames and the appearance of mega fires, but it is naive to believe that they will be enough to prevent all fire outbreaks. The interventions of the fire brigade will then, as today, be the only solution. These fire soldiers should logically be allocated more resources. “The Minister of the Interior recently undertook to make more water bombers available this summer” in addition to releasing “180 million euros to the SDIS [qui] will allow the purchase of 1,100 fire-fighting devices”, notes MP Sophie Panonacle in the bill.
In the longer term, Emmanuel Macron promised in October 2022 to expand the fleet of French Canadairs to 16 planes, against 12 today, by the end of his second term. In addition to receiving reinforcements, the vehicles already available should be replaced.
The elected officials did not advance on the means allocated to the firefighters, but they thought of a measure which could save “tens of millions of euros” each year according to the calculations of Eric Pauget, deputy of the Alps -Maritimes and member of the law commission. A sum that could be used to complete the fleet of firefighters. How ? Exemption from excise duty – former internal consumption tax on energy products (TICPE) – on petrol and diesel for all SDIS vehicles.
Forests rebuilt according to global warming
For the losses already recorded during the last major fires and for those that neither preventive measures nor the intervention of firefighters will be able to save, solutions must also be found. The hectares that have gone up in smoke can be reforested, but in a manner “adapted to the forest station and its foreseeable evolution due to climate change” according to article 35 of the bill, that is to say with suitable wood species and according to the methods which will be defined by decrees of the competent authorities. Reforestation should also “allow the maintenance of firebreak and support zones for the fight of a width defined by the authorities”.