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This photo provided by the SDIS66 fire brigade shows a firefighter working at a forest fire Sunday, April 16, 2023, near Cerbere, southern France.
FRANCE’S government sounded the alarm today about the growing risk of forest fires because of climate change, as hundreds of firefighters in the country’s parched south wrestled with the biggest woodland-destroying blaze so far this year.
The fire erupted on Sunday and burned more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of land along the Mediterranean coast, and spread across the border into north-east Spain.
On a visit to the zone earlier today, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said: “The fire season is starting early because of climate warming.”
When it comes to extreme weather events, from wildfires to flash floods, it’s firefighters who are on the front line of defence, but services have been cut to the bone, and government is not taking seriously its responsibility for the environment, says STEVE WRIGHT