Since April 2017, the Civil Protection National Aircraft Base (BASC) has relocated from Marignane to Nîmes-Garons.
The 23 water bomber aircraft in the civil protection fleet have a combined capacity of 121,700 litres.
The Canadairs, symbols of the battle against wildfires, the 12
Canadairs, the oldest of which is around twenty years old, are the best known to the general public. These 12 yellow and red amphibious aircraft, which can very quickly refill their 6,137-litre fuel tanks at sea, are used primarily for firefighting.are aircraft capable of dropping more than 6,000 litres and refuelling over bodies of water and at sea.
Smaller but just as effective, the nine
Tracker carry 3,000 litres of fire retardant, a product that slows the spread of flames. On high-risk days, they take part in surveillance missions in the south of France, the south-west and Corsica. In this way, they extinguish 60 per cent of emerging fires.
The Civil Protection service also has two
Dash-8 Q400. In summer, these water-bombing aircraft are equipped with a removable 10,000-litre tank of fire retardant, which they drop upstream of the fire to slow its spread. Unlike the Canadair aircraft, the Dash and Tracker models are refuelled on the ground at ‘pelikandromes’.
In winter, these multi-purpose aircraft are used to transport personnel from the Ministry of the Interior (up to 64) and equipment (9 tonnes) both in France and abroad. Three
Beechcraft King Air 200 complement this system. These small transport and liaison aircraft are used to coordinate the fleet of water-bombing aircraft and carry out reconnaissance missions.
In the summer, some aircraft are deployed to Corsica, the South and the South-West of France, depending on the weather risks. The water-bombing aircraft also operate across Europe as part of the mutual assistance framework established by the Heads of State of the European Union in the field of civil protection.
Photo: J. Feydel -
SDIS24 Communications Department
