While a forest fire broke out this week in the Var, an RN deputy is concerned about the availability of French Canadairs.
A fleet of planes almost entirely unusable “due to lack of maintenance”, regrets the elected official.
The National Federation of Firefighters of France confirms a worrying situation, although the fight against fires is not limited to Canadair.
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In the Var, firefighters faced the first big fire of the season. Some 600 hectares of forest burned and 800 firefighters from nine departments were mobilized. As summer approaches, outgoing RN deputy Julien Rancoule
is concerned about firefighting methods. He sounds the alarm and calls out to Gérald Darmanin, ensuring that “almost all of our 12 Canadairs are grounded due to lack of maintenance.”
Maintenance of the devices in question
The elected official from Var refers to an article from France 3 Occitanie, in which pilot Benoît Quennepoix, secretary general of the national union of civil aviation flight crew, testifies. “We have extremely low availability of the Canadair fleet”he slips, since this one “oscillates between zero devices per day and one. This morning for example, we had three then as the breakdowns continued, there was only one left.” The person concerned attributes most of these difficulties to a “staffing and management problem at technician level”. In its sights, the Sabena company, affected by “around fifteen departures” since the beginning of the year. A problem which could be explained in part by the “working conditions” employees.
On the side of the National Federation of French Firefighters (FNSPF), we do not deny the problems with the current availability of Canadairs. “Who better than the pilots’ union to speak out on maintenance?”a representative of the FNSPF tells TF1info. “They’re the ones on the ground.” That devices need careful and regular maintenance is not surprising, “these are machines that are more than 20 years old”reminds the Federation, especially since the devices are required to carry out interventions in difficult conditions.
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The breakdowns that are reported, “do not jeopardize human safety”, add the firefighters, no more than the overall integrity of the planes. The fact remains that electrical or sometimes scooping problems require to be taken care of by specialized technicians. “All the components must be operational” so that firefighting missions can be carried out with these devices, adds the Federation.
In the ranks of the FNSPF, we deplore that no “prioritization of the fire sector” is not operated on. “When I need a part for a product in everyday life, I go through an e-commerce site and it is often possible to be delivered in 24 or 48 hours. Why not does not have a similar system for certain state services?”, asks a representative of the fire brigade who also mentions a sovereignty issue linked to spare parts. The Americans are also equipping themselves with Canadair, produced by their Canadian neighbors. And when they face damage, they “will help themselves first” to carry out repairs. “We cannot at a given moment say that we are going to buy new vehicles, without then taking charge of the subject of repair”we are told.
If the maintenance of Canadairs raises concerns, firefighters point out that the fight against forest fires takes place with a fleet which is not limited to these planes alone. Without the presence and action of men on the ground, these devices “cannot continue their missions”. The FNSPF has had proof of this in recent years, we are not in France “not capable of dealing with five or six large simultaneous fires” and face “a capacity limit”. A fortiori When “events like the Olympics overlap” to missions already carried out in normal times. Whether it is the “ground assistance to people” – in resurgence – or else “preventive engagement on the ground during the summer”. In a context like this, firefighters are calling more than ever for citizen responsibility. A “key to success” in terms of prevention “knowing that 90% of fires are of human origin”.
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