Elected officials and local officials warn of the state of the French Canadair: “old planes”, few in number and poorly maintained. They require an urgent investment to protect themselves in the event of new fires.
“The state must hear us“. On the French Mediterranean rim, elected officials, heads of emergency services and regional parks are concerned about “insufficiency» aerial means available against fires, when fires affect other regions.
President Emmanuel Macron promised on Wednesday July 20 the purchase of additional planes to fight the fires, during a trip to Gironde, where two mega-fires destroyed nearly 21,000 hectares of forest. “The 22 planes with which the Civil Protection is equipped were sufficient in recent years. (…) Do we need more? The answer is yes“, he judged.
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With global warming, the fires should indeed intensify in regions where they are already recurrent, such as the Southeast, but also affect regions further north until then.immunizedAgainst these natural disasters, scientists from the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae) warned at the end of June.
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Insufficient overall number
“The national context which imposes a movement of air resources outside the usual area of action jeopardizes the coverage of the Mediterranean departments“, warned this week the president of the Var fire and rescue service (SDIS 83), Dominique Lain. This department, both very wooded and very touristy, had been affected by the largest fire of the summer in France in 2021. More than 6,000 hectares had burned in the hinterland of the seaside resort of Saint-Tropez.
“The strategy of rapid and massive attack (…) on incipient fires, which has proven itself for 30 years, with a reduction in burned areas, is greatly degraded“, he said. “The overall number of Canadair (water bomber aircraft) is insufficient for the territory“, also judged this week the president of the Alpilles park and the network of natural parks in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Jean Mangion.
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“Pilots must be recruited today, orders for Canadair must be placed today. (…) All this takes time and was not planned. Tomorrow it might be too late“, he warns, a few days after a fire which covered 1600 hectares in the Provençal massif of Montagnette.
On paper, France has 19 water bomber planes based in Nîmes-Garons (Gard): 12 Canadair capable of carrying 6,000 liters of water each and seven Dash planes of 10,000 liters (an eighth is expected in 2023, editor’s note ), which refuel on the ground in one of the 22″pelicandromasprovided for this purpose in France.
old planes
Three “Beechcraft” reconnaissance planes and helicopters including two heavy water bombers (4000 liters of water) complete the system. France has also acquired two additional Canadairs for 2025 as part of a grouped European order. The president of the Paca region, Renaud Muselier, said Thursday that the region was ready to finance a third device. But he is waiting for the green light from the State, the only one authorized to place an order. “They don’t want, I don’t understand why“, he regrets to AFP.
Renaud Muselier explains that he also wants to finance a new “pelicandrom» in Hyères (Var) and also wait for an authorization from the State. “We wanted to make economies of scale. (…) Today, the reality is that the Canadairs are old planes of which only 6 out of 12 are operational, for reasons of maintenance or spare parts“, he says about the French air force.
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As a result, some of the departments most exposed to fires are forced to finance the rental of aerial means themselves each year to complete the national system, as in the Var where the SDIS 83 invests more than 1.5 million euros per year. for four water bomber helicopters. “The state must help us financially“implores Dominique Lain, who made an appointment with the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to express his concern. He calls for “a collective awareness“.
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