France is overwhelmed by forest fires and the lack of sufficient aerial means to combat them. Hence, the Government announced this Thursday that it will experimentally adapt a military transport aircraft, the Airbus A400M Atlas, to help extinguish fires like the one that has already forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 people near Bordeaux.
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The Executive’s spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, indicated that the Airbus A400M Atlas, a very versatile turboprop four-engine aircraft (assembled in Seville), should be operational within days. The difficulty lies not so much in conditioning the aircraft by equipping it with a tank for 20 tons of water or retardant liquid, but in quickly training pilots to use it in forest fire extinguishing operations, flying at low altitude, a delicate task.
The chosen transport aircraft model has been in service since 2013 and has been used in a multitude of operations worldwide. The advantage over seaplanes is that it can carry three times more liquid. The Airbus A400M Atlas is 45 meters long and is capable of taking off and landing on short runways, in addition to being prepared for night flight.
The urgency to acquire more firefighting means stems from the multiplication of fires, a consequence of high temperatures, dry forests, wind, and the incivility and criminal behavior of some people.
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Attention this Thursday is focused on the Gironde department, north of Arcachon Bay, west of Bordeaux. It affects the vicinity of Lège-Cap-Ferret, a very popular holiday area. Among the evacuated are many vacationers in campsites. If more people need to be evacuated, doing so by sea is not ruled out, as it is safer and faster than by road. By mid-afternoon, at least 3,400 hectares had burned. About 800 firefighters are mobilized.
Successive heatwaves not only facilitate fires. Mortality is also affected. According to the latest data from health authorities (Santé Publique France, SpF), only the extreme heatwave episode at the end of June resulted in 5,764 deaths above the average for the period. These are provisional figures, to which deaths from the mid-July heatwave will have to be added.
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