Fighting forest fires - Monaco Fire and Emergency Service always ready for action

© Government Communication Department / Manuel Vitali

During the summer season, which is always a high-risk time for fires, Monaco’s Fire and Emergency Service spends Wednesday mornings improving its readiness to fight forest blazes. The aim of these training sessions is to regularly draw firefighters’ attention to individual and group safety measures, to develop the right responses in terms of positioning and personal and group safety, and to foster an operational mind-set so that service is fully prepared to tackle forest fires if required.

Following a theory section, the training covers the deployment of equipment and firefighting techniques.

As Lieutenant-Colonel Norbert Fassiaux emphasised: “While dealing with such incidents is not part of the everyday work of service personnel, they must nonetheless be trained and ready for this type of situation so that we can operate in the French sector under the April 1970 Franco-Monegasque Agreement concerning Mutual Assistance between Emergency Services and Civil Protection Services.”