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CLIMATE CRISIS

Volunteer firefighters key in France’s fight against wildfires

Volunteer firefighters make up more than three-quarters of all the nearly 252,000 firefighters in the country, according to official figures.

Volunteer firefighters key in France's fight against wildfires
Firefighters in Mostuejouls, southern France, on August 9, 2022. Photo: Valentine CHAPUIS/AFP

Volunteer firefighters have been called up from their day jobs all over France this summer to help battle wildfires. “It’s the first year we’ve been summoned so much to help outside” our region, said 23-year-old Victorien Pottier.

Volunteer firefighters make up more than three-quarters of all the nearly 252,000 firefighters in the country, according to official figures.

They have been on the frontline dousing flames this summer as the country tackles a historic drought and a series heatwaves that experts say are being driven by climate change.

These have included a huge blaze in the southwestern region of Gironde, which erupted in July and destroyed 14,000 hectares before it was contained.

But it continued to smoulder in the tinder-dry pine forests and peat-rich soil, and flared up again this week, burning a further 7,400 hectares.

When he is not on duty once every five weeks in northwest France, Pottier works preparing orders for a large dairy products manufacturer.

In the country’s southwest, Alisson Mendes, 36, a sales assistant for a prominent supermarket group, said she went to help fight the massive blaze in Gironde for two days.

She said she would be prepared to go back, but thought her chances were slim as she had heard there was a long waiting list of other volunteers hoping to go and help out. “They prioritise those who’ve never been,” she said.

France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Wednesday called on private companies to free up their volunteer firefighters so they could come and help.

Large companies, including the national gas and electricity providers, on Friday said they would do their best. 

So did Pottier’s dairy product company.

In the beginning, it was not very enthusiastic about him volunteering his time, says Pottier, who has been on call to fight fires for more than three and a half years.

Fine balance

“But then they saw what was in it for them,” he said. “We’re good at spotting risky situations within the company, which helps to avoid work accidents.”

Each firm decides how many days they can free up those employees in a case of emergency through a deal they sign with the local firefighting and rescue services.

But Samuel Mathis, secretary general of the volunteer firefighter syndicate, says smaller companies cannot so easily afford to do without their staff.

The government “tells companies to free up volunteers,” he said. “But I don’t see how a tradesperson with just two or three employees can reasonably do without them, especially in August,” he said.

At the end of 2020, France counted 197,100 volunteer firefighters, according to official figures.

That is compared to just 41,800 professional firemen and women, and 13,000 paramilitary police trained to help out.

But when they rush to help extinguish the flames, volunteer firefighters are not paid a salary like their peers.

Instead, they are only paid compensation of barely 8 euros ($8) an hour of work — less than the national minimum wage.

Mathis, of the volunteer firefighting union, said it was too little. “It’s not nearly enough to confront flames 40 metres (130 feet) high,” he said.

It’s an issue that will need addressing as France seeks to recruit more volunteers.

The president of the National Federation of Firefighters, Gregory Allione, says a massive recruitment drive is needed to find 50,000 people to battle blazes on a voluntary basis by 2027.

Volunteers usually sign up for a five-year period that can be extended afterwards. In the past, people have stayed on for around 11-12 years.

But this has been slipping, according to Olivier Grauss, who works as a firefighter in the town of Selestat in eastern France and also volunteers in the smaller who also volunteers in a the village of Obernai “out of passion.”

The main reasons are “work, school, family.”

“There are more and more women, but often the women stop after they have a child,” said the 34-year-old, who has been a volunteer firefighter since he was 16.

Mendes, who comes from Correze in southwestern France, says “many stay for two or three years and leave because they didn’t realise there are so many constraints.”

“You are not appreciated, you get psychologically exhausted.”

Volunteer firefighters have to on a daily basis find a balance between
their professional life, their families and the volunteering.

Constant adrenaline 

Aurelie Ponzevera is a 39-year-old social worker in Corsica and has been a volunteer firefighter for about 10 years. Lack of sleep and lack of time are her biggest constraints.

She manages to find a balance by coordinating caring for her three-year-old daughter with her partner, who is a professional firefighter.

“It’s constantly organisation and anticipation. We know that when one is on call, the other one is not,” she says.

“Sometimes it’s very complicated on the emotional level, but we have to move past it and continue. But that’s part of the package with this constant adrenaline, that’s part of what draws us to it,” Ponzevera says.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

New report warns of heat danger at Paris Olympics

A new report backed by climate scientists and athletes warns about the dangers of extreme high temperatures at this year's Paris Olympics - as the city has been experiencing increasingly severe heatwaves in recent years due to the climate crisis.

New report warns of heat danger at Paris Olympics

Although the summer in northern France has so far been unusually damp and cool, the long-term forecast from Météo France says that France is likely to experience temperatures above seasonal norms this summer, including during the Games period of July, August and September.

The Rings of Fire report – a collaboration between non-profit Climate Central, academics at Britain’s University of Portsmouth and 11 Olympians – said conditions in Paris could be worse than the last Games in Tokyo in 2021.

It warned that “intense heat at the Paris Olympics in July-August 2024 could lead to competitors collapsing and in worst case scenarios dying during the Games.”

The study adds to a growing number of calls from sports people to adjust schedules and the timing of events to take into account the physical strain of competing in higher temperatures caused by the climate crisis.

Rings of Fire urges organisers of competitions typically held at the height of the northern hemisphere summer – such as the Olympics or the football World Cup – to re-think their scheduling.

They should also provide improved rehydration and cooling plans for athletes and fans to avoid the risk of heat stroke, the study argued.

The Paris Olympics, which run from July 26th to August 11th, followed by the Paralympics from August 28th to September 8th – are set to take place in what are usually the warmest months in the French capital which has been struck by a series of record heatwaves in recent years.

More than 5,000 people died in France as a result of searing summer heat last year when new local highs above 40C (104 Fahrenheit) were recorded around the country, according to public health data.

The city’s all-time temperature record of 42.6C was set during a heatwave in 2019.

A study in the Lancet Planet Health journal last May found that Paris had the highest heat-related death rates of 854 European towns and cities, partly due to its lack of green space and dense population.

Last summer, city planners ran a series of emergency planning simulations for when temperatures reach 50C, which is expected in the coming decades.

Grass roofs and siestas: How Paris is preparing for the day when the temperature reaches 50C

Rather than high temperatures, incessant rain is currently the bigger weather-related concern for organisers, with regular downpours in May and June leading to unusually strong currents in the river Seine and poor water quality.

The Seine is set to host a boat parade during the unprecedented opening ceremony being planned for July 26th, as well as the triathlon swimming and marathon swimming events – pollution permitting.

Organisers of Paris 2024 say they have built flexibility into their schedules, enabling them to shift around some events such as the marathon or triathlon to avoid the peaks of midday heat.

But much of the Games is set to take place in temporary stands that lack shade, while the athletes’ village has been built without air conditioning to reduce the Games’ carbon footprint.

“Sleep disruption due to heat has been cited in the build-up to the 2024 Games as a major concern by athletes, especially given the lack of air conditioning in the Olympic Village,” the report said.

Olympic teams have been offered the possibility of installing portable air-conditioning units in their accommodation, however, which many have opted to include.

One of the athletes who backed the Rings of Fire report, Indian triathlete Pragnya Mohan, said she had left her home country because of high temperatures, with the country recently reporting its longest ever heatwave.

“With climate change, the kind of heat that we experience has increased so much,” Mohan told reporters. “I am not able to train in my country. That is one of the reasons that I moved to the UK.”

The last Summer Olympics in Tokyo were widely thought to have been the hottest on record, with temperatures regularly above 30C coupled with 80 percent humidity.

Tokyo organisers moved the race walk events and two marathons 800 kilometres north of Tokyo in the hope of cooler weather that did not really materialise.

Despite a range of anti-heat measures including misting stations, many athletes struggled while performing, including Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev who wondered aloud on court if he might die.

Speaking after Tokyo, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, who wrote a foreword for Rings of Fire, warned that the “new norm” was competing in “really harsh climatic conditions”.

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