France on fire as firefighters call for resources, not recognition

As wildfires continue to burn across France, representatives of firefighters' unions said they would go on strike in September to protest a lack of resources. 

In the midst of a summer marked by heatwaves and deadly fires, a coalition of unions representing France's fire and rescue services met with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez for nearly two hours on the afternoon of August 13, Caliber.Az writes, citing France's RFI.

They presented three main demands: more funding to cope with a surge in emergency calls, mass recruitment of professional firefighters and new legislation to modernise civil protection services.

"The minister failed to deliver; we received no concrete answer. We have no assurances regarding funding, the funding strategy or the content of the legislation," commented union spokesperson Xavier Boy.

He said resources allocated to firefighting had not kept pace with a rising number of interventions and multiplying crises.

The unions have called for "intensive mobilisation" on September 29, when public sector workers are also planning to go on strike.

Professional firefighters are also planning to protest for three days beforehand at the Place de la République in Paris, David Saquet of the Unsa firefighters' union told French news agency AFP.

Firefighters say they are exhausted after what has been one of France's worst wildfire seasons in history, with at least 120,000 hectares burnt since the beginning of the summer, according to provisional estimates.

The summer has also been deadly, with four firefighters losing their lives.

The blazes are fought by the most part by volunteer firefighters.

Of the 256,400 firefighters listed by the French Interior Ministry, only 44,000 – around 17 per cent – are either professionals or military personnel. 

Unions say they want more than just recognition.

"We don't want to be called heroes; we want to be given the resources," Ludovic Goblet, vice-president of Spasdis-CFTC union, told AFP prior to the meeting, calling on the government to hire an extra 21,000 professional firefighters. "This summer's wildfires, which were exceptional in scale but are set to become the norm, have shown that we are heading for disaster."

Nuñez said on August 13 that a long-awaited bill to reform the country's civil protection services would be presented on September 8.

Launched in mid-2024, it set out to modernise a system deemed to be at breaking point – with additional funding attached – but has since stalled.