Faced with the scale of the fires that have been ravaging France since the start of the summer, the boss of the Carrefour group called on Twitter on Wednesday "each store and warehouse manager" to "release from their professional obligations [those] who can go as reinforcements.
Incidentally, the CEO says he is "proud to have volunteer firefighters in his ranks" and shows his "tremendous respect" to all fire fighters.
Carrefour is proud to have volunteer firefighters in its ranks.
We ask each store and warehouse manager to release our colleagues who can go as reinforcements from their professional obligations.
Huge respect and support for all fire fighters https://t.co/JiNvI2gCFz
— Alexandre Bompard (@bompard) August 10, 2022
This call to let the volunteer firefighters return to their barracks follows the message delivered the day before to this effect by Gérald Darmanin.
The Minister of the Interior launched an appeal on Tuesday "to employers to release their employees who are volunteer firefighters" to strengthen the system to fight against the multiple fires of the summer.
“It is an extremely important civic message,” he added during a trip to the village of Mostuéjouls, evacuated overnight from Monday to Tuesday due to the proximity of a fire.
It “could even last until October”
In Gironde, Jura, Drôme and Maine-et-Loire… France is seeing new fires ravaging its forests in the four corners of the territory.
These exceptional fires since the beginning of the summer have put a strain on the firefighters, professionals and volunteers, who have been mobilized sometimes until exhaustion.
And the fight seems far from over.
Read alsoFires in Gironde, 6200 hectares of forest devoured in 24 hours: "We have the impression of not moving forward"
"We are here until the end of August at least, but unless it rains for a good week, treating the forest will take weeks and could even last until October", explained to the Parisian, the Chief Warrant Officer Jean-Charles, head of the integrated military section detachment, in Gironde.