Highest-level fire warnings for eastern France following 6-week drought

Two departments in France's east have been placed under high-risk wildfire warnings. Authorities are concerned as parts of the country haven't had any rainfall for over six weeks.

French firefighters assessing the risks for French forests (illustration). © Marine de La Moissonnière / RFI

The Meurthe-et-Moselle and Meuse departments were placed on an orange level warning on Monday, due to a "high" risk of forest fires.

According to France's weather bureau Météo-France, eleven other departments in the Grand Est, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Ile-de-France regions have also been placed on yellow alert.

On Sunday, a fire broke out again in the Vosges commune of Saint-Baslemont, following a previous fire last which had ravaged six hectares.

This time, the fire brigade's rapid intervention limited the damage to less than one hectare.

#FeuxdeForêt | Niveau de risque élevé d'#incendies dans la #Meuse @SDIS_55 et la #MeurtheEtMoselle @SDIS54.

Plus que jamais, soyez vigilant :
🚬ne jetez pas vos mégots de cigarette
🔥n’allumez pas de feu ou barbecue aux abords des forêts
🧰évitez les travaux sources d’étincelle pic.twitter.com/BC7zfpw7G3

— Pompiers de France (@PompiersFR) June 12, 2023

No significant rain on the horizon

Pascal Boyé, the mayor of Saint-Baslemont, explained: The forest is dry, there is dead wood and stumps, all of which is conducive to a relapse into fire." 

"There is heightened vigilance and every forest owner is worried. It hasn't rained for a month or a month and a half, there's a lot of wind... We salute the work of the fire brigade – they were very efficient – [but] it could have been dramatic", he added.

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Météo France is still forecasting rain-free weather in the region for the next seven days.

By this Tuesday, five of the country's departments will still be under the orange fire alert. In Lorraine and Ile-de-France, 23 departments will remain under yellow alert.

#FeuxDeForêt 🔥🌲🧑‍🚒| La préfète @Prefet67 a lancé ce dimanche le déploiement des Sentinelles de la forêt dans le #BasRhin lors d'un exercice sur les communes de #Lutzelhouse et #Bellefosse en lien avec le @sdis67. pic.twitter.com/wBhsUWehpX

— Préfète de région Grand Est & du Bas-Rhin 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@Prefet67) June 11, 2023

Sentinels volunteer to patrol high risk areas

In the Lower Rhine department, the prefecture has set up a "Sentinelle" fire watch system, which was launched at 2pm on Monday.

The sentinels, who are volunteers, are alerted by e-mail and go out to patrol areas considered potentially dangerous according to a number of criteria – weather, hydrological conditions, heat, wind etc.

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If they detect a fire, they call the emergency services and give their approximate coordinates, the colour of the smoke and other information so that the fire brigade can get there as quickly as possible.

During the summer of 2022, there were between "six and 12 fires a day" in the Bas-Rhin department, but 95 percent of them were extinguished before reaching an area of five hectares.