However, a rather nice civic gesture at the base? “Yes, but what do we do? There aren’t many solutions. Yes, the citizen’s approach is good, but the firefighters’ solution is rubbish. If we have to cut down thousands of trees.”
A consultation
And the commander to call for a consultation! “There is management to be had with road managers”.
For him, other solutions such as anticipation exist. “We don’t cut down a birch tree that is leaning and is 6 meters from the road, otherwise there would be thousands to cut down.”
The manager speaks “of a hidden problem. We don’t take this into account when we do annual maintenance along the roads. Perhaps we should ask ourselves the question, cut them down, reduce their height? In advance, should we plant so close to the highway? Today, we are in a vicious circle, rather than a virtuous one.”
Trees obstructing the road: firefighters intervene
The area manager specifies: “J and speaks trees that have not fallen, a tree that obstructs the public highway and represents a danger, this is one of our missions and we do it with a good heart! It’s our job! But we must keep in mind that the province of Luxembourg operates with half of volunteer firefighters.
The framework calls for the responsibility of everyone: DNF, SPW, Municipalities, owners, users: “Citizens must be educated to reduce their speed and road managers must be made aware. We should sit around a table to see what measures need to be taken.”
Stéphane Thiry: “This mobilizes a lot of forces for an action which is not really an emergency”
“There are hundreds of trees that are leaning, we send a team of firefighters for nothing. People don’t know that there is negative treatment. If I have 25 firefighters on the road for trees, they are 25 firefighters that I don’t have for other interventions. This mobilizes a lot of forces for an action that is not really an emergency.
Don’t cut them all
We would have liked to have the reaction of the SPW, this was not possible. A DNF guard minimizes. For this man in the field, there were just as many with the snow packs of the winters of yesteryear. “We only manage public woods. Branches that break, yes, they exist, but that is not why all the trees must be cut down.“
