A hundred French firefighters are scheduled to land in Quebec on Thursday afternoon. Among them is a detachment of seven members of the fire brigade of the Gard, a region in southern France. These pioneers use the special technique of tactical fire, in which fire is fought with fire.
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“It’s an ancient technique developed by shepherds [des montagnes] of the Cévennes to avoid the big fires of the summer, explains the communications manager of the fire brigade des Gard, Éric Agrinier. The area should be surveyed to determine if it is suitable for the application of this method. […] Return fires are ignited that oppose the main fire and limit the possibilities of spread since there is nothing left to burn. »
According to Lieutenant-Colonel Agrinier, “you have to calculate your blow well”, but it is a technique that “could save a lot of human and material resources”, since it only takes a few well-trained firefighters to control kilometers of fronts made of fire.
Fires in Canada: The Gard Fire Brigade team is ready for departure, accompanied by the director of the Gard Department of Fire and Rescue Services, Colonel Thierry Carret.
Good luck on your mission folks! pic.twitter.com/nrr40dDCmB
– Fire Department Gard (@pompiersdugard) June 8, 2023
humility and cooperation
The Gardois will come “very modestly” to support SOPFEU with their expertise where the situation allows.
In a press release published this morning, we learned that the seven specialists, who are used to helping fellow Europeans, would be involved in “tactical fire operations, forestry work and peripheral processing”.
“Reinforcement is coming” seriously
Gard firefighters and the rest of the engineer contingent promised by French President Emmanuel Macron will arrive at Quebec’s Jean Lesage Airport late Thursday afternoon.
A hundred firefighters, accompanied by two television crews, should thus land on Quebec soil. They will be greeted by French consul Frédéric Sanchez and should sleep at the Valcartier base before being deployed on Friday.
President Macron indicated on Sunday that a hundred firefighters were preparing to “fight the flames alongside their comrades in Quebec.”
“Experts are also being mobilized. Canadian friends, reinforcements are coming,” he wrote in a message posted to Twitter.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, then thanked him before making it clear a few days later that American firefighters would also be on their way to help fight the forest fires raging in the country.
– In collaboration with Agence QMI and TVA Nouvelles
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