In the Bouches-du-Rhône, firefighters are preparing for a “season in hell” – Le Monde

Reserved for our subscribers ReportsIncreasingly frequent heatwaves, ever earlier fires… In the Marseille region, firefighters are forced to adapt to the consequences of global warming. They were waiting for him. Without knowing when he would declare himself, but with this certainty: he would not delay any longer. In the Marseille region, the first big fire of the summer ravaged nearly 1,500 hectares in the Montagnette massif, on the Vaucluse border, probably caused by the sparks produced by the defective brake shoe of a train of goods between Tarascon and Graveson (Bouches-du-Rhône). Mechanic firefighters start their day at the Bouches-du-Rhône Departmental Fire and Rescue Service, in Marseille, on June 30, 2022. MATTHIEU ROSIER / VOST COLLECTIF POUR “LE MONDE” More than a thousand firefighters fought there in an arid landscape of limestone and valleys covered with highly flammable scrubland, pine forests, fields of almond and olive trees, interspersed with steep cliffs. Since Saturday, the fire has been “fixed”, but the staff of the Bouches-du-Rhône departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS 13) warned: “The operation will be long. “Especially since it is also necessary to intervene on other hot spots. At Pennes-Mirabeau, for example, where fifty firefighters arming twenty gear were deployed on Thursday. As often in this sector, the fire started along the A55, the “coastal highway”, which runs from the Joliette district, in Marseille, to Martigues, the “little Venice” of Provence. Overly dry vegetation and persistent heat wave: in the Bouches-du-Rhône, the current weather episode has revived fears of a season in hell, which began well before the great heat of summer. The first six months of the year, the department recorded 641 outbreaks of fire, including 230 for the month of June alone. “Exceptional, we have never installed a preventive device so early”, assures Captain Stéphane Guyot, from the firefighters’ headquarters, a vast complex planted a few steps from the Bassens city, in the top 5 of the deal points of the northern districts of Marseille. A true nerve center, the operations room occupies a disconcerting science-fiction setting, where operators scrutinize a gigantic wall of images that provides a live inventory of the action on the ground. Where necessary, these sentinels benefit from the advice of specialists from other services, forestry agents or the electricity transmission network. The call processing center, installed on the same technical platform, receives 1,500 to 1,600 daily phone calls, all geolocated, to report a fire, an accident or a gas leak. Firefighters discuss in the room of the rescue operations command center, in Marseille on June 30, 2022. MATTHIEU ROSIER / VOST COLLECTIF POUR “LE MONDE” The rescue of advanced technologies “Here, we have everything except volcanic eruptions “Explains Lieutenant-Colonel Frédéric Maggiani, head of the operations group, in a very “square” tone. In addition to personal rescue, which mobilizes 85% of the missions carried out by firefighters, the Bouches-du-Rhône department offers a concentration of risks: twenty-five rivers over 10 kilometers long, dozens of companies in the chemical sector attracted by the proximity of the port of Marseille, a dense urban fabric stretched along 400 kilometers of coastline, bodies of water and dams, an oil terminal in Fos-sur-Mer and a TGV tunnel at Pennes-Mirabeau, not to mention a quarter of the municipalities located in an average seismic zone. You have 68.55% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.