Alain Laratta, Secretary General of the French fire-fighters trade union ‘Avenir Secours’: ‘In order to efficiently fight forest fires across the continent, and amid climate change and extreme weather conditions,  we need to build a European and even a global approach to firefighting’.

Due to climate change, the world and Europa are experiencing a major increase in both the number and the intensity of natural disasters, such as forest fires, storms or flooding. In an interview with CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger, Alain Laratta, Secretary General of the French fire-fighters trade union ‘Avenir Secours’, proposes a European fire-fighting strategy, among others with a focus on the fight against ‘incipient fires’.

Based on French experiences and expertise, Laratta calls for setting up a well-functioning network of fire-fighting experts within the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to share experiences and best practices. “In order to become more effective in managing crises and in fighting forest-fires, cooperation, coordination and mutual support has to be further improved. It is therefore necessary to develop a common strategy based on lessons learned”, Larrata underlined.

To support such a European approach or strategy, the so-called ‘rescEU reserve’ has to be further increased. Member states need more support for the acquisition of firefighting planes or helicopters in order to develop effective fire fighting capacities.  However, this also requires an overall EU strategy for fire-fighting. Harmonised rules need to ensure that interventions of disaster risk management and rescue teams across borders are facilitated. For example, access to water can be difficult, and will become even a more stringent need in the future.

The full interview (in French) with Alain Laratta is available here.

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