The harvest period will soon begin and with the drought the risk of fire is high. Farmers are also involved in the fight against crop fires. An agreement has just been signed in the Yvelines with the firefighters.
Fields that catch fire, this is what the public authorities want to avoid at all costs. In July 2019, a thousand hectares of cultivation were reduced to ashes. Four years later, same drought, same scorching heat but 40 days ahead of schedule. “If we have to intervene, as a farmer, to help the fire brigade to extinguish this site of fire, what we call crop fires, our tools cannot get into the ground because it really too dry” regrets Christophe Lerebour, cereal farmer.
A fire brigade vehicle stationed near a field • © France 3 PIDF
With this protocol, six operators will inform the emergency services as close as possible to the field and above all, their interventions will now be officially recognized. “The farmer who arrives at the harvest fire puts himself at the disposal of the commander of the rescue operations who is the fire officer. He will take on missions, we will deploy him on one flank, on one side and above all , we want to prevent him from putting himself in danger at the front of the flames” explains Eric Roblin, lieutenant-colonel of SDIS 91.
At a time when droughts are repeated, it becomes urgent to better organize the missions. For the prefect of Essonne, Bertrand Gaume, the absence of rain “make the problem of forest fires or vegetation fires more and more important. (…) The first few fires in Essonne last weekend show that we need to prepare earlier and earlier and more and more collectively”.
Firefighters in action during the 2019 fire • © Archives – July 2019
80% of fires are of human origin, most often it is a cigarette butt thrown from a window, the authorities therefore call for the greatest vigilance.
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