Raising awareness of the risk of wildfires and forest fires

As part of the activities of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs' General Department of Civil Security (Direction générale de la sécurité civile), the "Wildfire and Forest Fire" expert working group has published guidelines on what action to take during the wildfire and forestfire season.

Depending on how weather conditions develop in the coming weeks, and especially in the event of prolonged periods of high temperatures with no rainfall, causing drier vegetation in meadows and forests, any careless act, such as discarding a cigarette butt without extinguishing it completely, or sparks from a car or farming machinery, can be enough to start a fire.

As such, we ask that you remain especially vigilant to the risk of wildfires and forest fires, and that you adopt the following practices:

• Don't throw cigarette butts on the ground.
• Don't start fires outside.
• Only light barbecues in designated areas, and keep something nearby to extinguish the fire (e.g. a container filled with water).
• Don't dispose of used charcoal or ashes from a barbecue in nature. Wait until the ashes have cooled before disposing of them in places designated for this purpose.
• Don't drive your car through meadows, fields or forests, as both sparks and the hot underside of vehicles can potentially cause a fire.
• Don't block access to forest roads or fields, so as to ensure firefighters can pass through in the event of a wildfire.