The Marine Firefighters of Marseilles – N°1 : fires at the university | Le Bataillon des Marins Pompiers de Marseille | RMC Découverte

“A boat with a leak can sink in minutes, even seconds”

The Mistral, drought and arsonists… an explosive cocktail in Marseilles.

A fire has just broken out behind the Marseilles Aix University in Luminy. This first outbreak poses a direct threat to the Calanques (creeks) nature reserve, one of the jewels of France’s patrimony. The high temperatures in these early days of September forebode a rare fire that will be difficult to control. The Departmental route 559, connecting Marseille to Cassis, is closed to traffic. The CCFs, the tanker trucks from the Point Rouge firehouse, that specialize in forest fires have to leave it to the ‘trackers’, the famous water bomber aircraft with their rust-colored load, a liquid designed to prevent the fire from spreading. Are the people of Marseille going to live through the same drama as they did on July 22 2009 when 2,000 acres of garrigue scrubland went up in smoke in less than 48 hours?

The fire will continue its deadly progress deep into the night. On Tuesday, September 6 at 8am, thanks to the combined efforts of 900 sailors and sapper-firefighters, as they marine firefighters call them, the fire is finally extinguished. But, once again, a major part of the Calanques national park is destroyed. The Luminy fire is an ecological disaster.

After a tragedy like this, nature takes 20 years to re-establish itself…