Dozens of international firefighters are fighting alongside Canadian firefighters in Quebec, where on June 26, 2023, there were 118 active fires. For several weeks, tens of thousands of hectares have been burning daily in all Canadian provinces.
To help Ottawa, France and several European countries, including Spain and Portugal, have sent firefighters to the scene. Colonel Éric Flores, director of the Hérault SDIS, has been there for several days.
“We work very early in the morning, when the fires are much weaker, we use the coolness of the night to be able to attack the fires. As soon as it starts to get hot, around 2 in the afternoon, the fires start again very quickly.” , he explains to BFMTV.
A fight “meter by meter”
“It is a meticulous job, we attack meter by meter to extinguish,” said the firefighter.
The situation has particularly worsened in recent weeks in Quebec. Since the beginning of the year, at least 7,698,963 have disappeared across the country. The balance could worsen in the coming days, the summer very dry and very hot.
This Sunday, acrid smoke covered Montreal, making it the city with the most polluted air in the world, according to Iqair, a Swiss company specialized in the study of atmospheric pollutants. A “smog” warning issued by Environment Canada was in effect for several regions of Quebec.
If firefighters from several European countries have arrived as reinforcements, the French have an advantage: they share the same language as their Quebec colleagues. “It was very easy not to have to manage ourselves, they put us very quickly on our own”, explains Éric Flores.
He and his team will be replaced by 119 new French firefighters arriving this week.
“It was exhausting work, but [on a] the feeling of duty done and a real pride in having brought our French experience to Canada,” the Hérault firefighter told BFMTV.
Source: BFM TV
