The 100 or so French civil defense firefighters who arrived on Friday are still in training, but something is likely to change. This Monday, around thirty French forest firefighters were dispatched to the Opitciwan municipal sector to set up a new fire complex.

Thirty firefighters from France will form a fire complex in the Opitciwan sector […] It’s a camp made up of managers, referees and teams. It’s a bit like a wrestling complex that we experienced in Chute-des-Passes. So not everything is controlled from here in Roberval, but we give these people the legitimacy of fire, of organizationunderlines the spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Forests from Fires (SOPFEU), Josée Poitras.

This team will be assigned to work on lights 371, 372 and 373. These are north of the Aboriginal community and threaten certain infrastructure including Route 167 which is one of the few links to Opitciwan.

Not deployed yet

Since their arrival, French firefighters have still not been on the scene to fight the flames directly.

However, they worked to support the teams on the ground, especially during the fires in the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette sector last weekend.

Health and safety are very important to us and a transfer of skills continues to take place. We explain here the behavior of our lights, the associated weather and the principles of health and safety.explains the spokesman SOPFEU.

Ms Poitras said in an interview with Radio-Canada that French firefighters had to practice getting on and off helicopters.

” You will understand that if an estimated 96,000 hectares of forest burns, there is no road access around the fire […] Our health and safety principles require us to ensure that everyone arrives alive at the end of the mandate. »

The duration of these training courses and the date when they should end have not yet been determined. However, the SOPFEU indicates that French firefighters are made up of fire management specialists.