PARIS (Reuters) – France must invest more money to fight wildfires, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said on Wednesday, as President Emmanuel Macron prepared to visit the Gironde region which has been hit by devastating blazes.
“We must go further,” Fesneau told France 2 Television.
Fesneau said the government had already earmarked 850 million euros ($870.23 million) to upgrade its fleet of fire-fighting planes, as well as 1 billion euros used for re-planting trees.
“We are having to confront a quite exceptional situation, we are talking about more than 20,000 hectares affected in Gironde, 1,500 in Finistere and 1,500 in the Bouches du Rhone,” added Fesneau, referring to damage caused in Brittany and Southern France.
Firefighters in southwestern France have been battling since July 12 to contain massive forest wildfires while Britain also recorded its highest ever temperature on Tuesday, as a heatwave swept across Europe.
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(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
