French professional firefighters launch a six-week nationwide campaign on Tuesday, demanding more funding, staff and better protection for their health after a summer of unprecedented wildfires.
Issued on: 08/09/2026 - 08:10Modified: 08/09/2026 - 08:20
3 min Reading time
At least 120,000 hectares went up in flames in France this summer – a record since satellite imagery was first used to measure wildfires 20 years ago. Four firefighters died in July, and more than a hundred have been injured over the summer while responding to or travelling to fire incidents. Faced with such pressure but also an increasing number of emergency call-outs, eight unions are calling for more than six weeks of strike action, beginning Tuesday. The unions want more financial and material resources, as well as mass recruitment of professional firefighters. "The system is not suffering from simple poisoning but from cancer," said Rémy Chabbouh, a spokesman for the SUD union. He said the crisis required major treatment and called for "action commensurate with the challenges". Even if the strike action is widely followed, emergency services are unlikely to be affected. The country's 44,300 professional firefighters can be ordered to work by fire and rescue services or requisitioned by local state representatives to ensure public services continue. Ravaged by wildfires, France's Fontainebleau forest reopens to public Funding pressures The campaign begins as the government presents unions with the broad outlines of a proposed civil security law, following a year of consultations launched in mid-2024. The talks were meant to lead to an ambitious law modernising a system seen as running out of steam, with additional funding. But unions say they have so far produced no results. Their campaign is due to end on 20 October when parliament begins examining France's 2027 budget. Unions therefore want to keep up the pressure on the government until then.
