Joe Allen: Can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers? How long have you been a firefighter? What were the working conditions like with your colleagues over the last two months?
Sébastien Delavoux: I am Sébastien Delavoux, a trade unionist with the CGT (the second largest trade union in the country, and the second largest among firefighters) defending the interests of fire and rescue service personnel (including firefighters). I am 48 years old. I have been a firefighter for 32 years, and it has been my profession for 27 years.
For some time now I have been confined to representing my colleagues in the union, but I have field agents on the phone every day and I work in a rescue center, since July 13 it has been very intense: every day contacts with journalists, to answer their questions or find them an interlocutor to give testimony.
JA: The fires in Europe received extensive media coverage in the United States, but without in-depth analysis or historical context. Can you describe how terrible this situation was for civilians and firefighters? This was not a sudden event.
SD: Indeed, this is not a sudden or unforeseen phenomenon; scientists have been warning us for decades. As of August 22nd, 160,000 hectares have burned, 450 houses have been destroyed, 4 firefighters have died in the line of duty, and firefighters have lost 30 vehicles destroyed by fire or accident. At the height of the fires in late July, 72 fire brigades (more than 7,200 personnel) were deployed, which is unprecedented, as the target of 51 reinforcement brigades in 2022 seemed a distant prospect. Even so, this was insufficient, as urban vehicles were ill-suited to fighting forest fires in the middle of the forest!
Hundreds of thousands of people, residents and tourists alike, have been evacuated.
Since 1973, 17 forest fires that have exceeded 5,000 hectares, including 6 since 2021, this is the reality of the global warming we were told about, and we are not ready.
JA: How have French firefighters’ and public sector unions reacted to the fire crisis? Some media outlets are reporting a planned national strike to demand more resources and concrete measures from the Macron government.
SD: Before the fires, in an inter-union group (comprising the 9 representative trade union organizations), we challenged the Prime Minister (in April) and met with members of his cabinet on May 27 to tell him that the Civil Security service is completely inadequate!!! The fires have had a magnifying effect on a system that has become too short.
We need to increase the budgets of fire and rescue services, increase the number of professionals, increase the number of vehicles, rethink the organization of Civil Security, and establish a real strategy for this public service.
JA: What was the physical and mental impact of the fire crisis on French firefighters?
Fatigue and fear, facing 40-meter flames in unbearable temperatures is not done without fear, and that’s natural. Forest fire operations are very physically demanding, we sleep little, we work day and night.
JA: The European and international scale of the fire crisis requires better coordination between firefighters’ unions. Have any political initiatives been taken in this regard?
SD: This year in particular, many countries have been affected, France, Portugal, Spain, Greece, thousands of hectares burned, many houses destroyed, deaths including firefighters.
Each country needs to increase its human and material resources because we need to prepare for major fires occurring simultaneously in several European countries; we must have the means in this situation to protect the inhabitants without exposing firefighters to mortal danger to extinguish forest fires.
JA: Are there any upcoming actions by your union?
SD: To force the government to find funding solutions for our services, we are organizing an occupation of the Place de la République in Paris from September 26 to 29, and a large demonstration in Paris on September 29; other professions want to carry out actions in support of our movement. There will be further actions after September 29th, and at the moment there are many actions being taken towards local and national elected officials to plead our cause.
