MARSEILLE, France: The tried-and-tested “strike quick and hard” approach of firemen is being tested to its breaking point in France’s dry, forested region because of climate change and rising human occupancy.
Near the extreme southeasterly boundary of France with Italy, 11 people died in a blaze in October 1970. Fifteen years later, another fire in the same area claimed the lives of five volunteer firefighters.
These deadly fires are now rare. Many analysts attribute the decrease in fatalities to the early 1990s approach adopted in the region between France’s border with Spain and its border with Italy. It is a sizable area with hot, dry summers and mountain slopes covered in forest where water demand exceeds availability. —APP
