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The fire brigade in the southern French department of Pyrénées-Orientales with its large wine region Languedoc-Roussillon is currently filling water into the unused tanks of wineries and cellars to build up a supply of fire-fighting water. The reason is the current exceptional drought, which has massively increased the fire risk.
Wine producers there have already made 17 steel tanks available. They are now filled with used water, which the fire brigade pumps from swimming pools, for example, and transports to the cooperatives and wineries in tankers. "We also collect water from the pools at the campsites. It is to serve us as a strategic reserve during the forest fire season. This way we avoid using drinking water from the hydrants, which serves the population," explained Olivier Cyprien from the Service départemental incendie secours (SDIS)
The Rivesaltes cooperative has provided a plastic tank with a capacity of 380,000 litres for the project, which is currently not in use. "We were contacted by the fire brigade as part of the prevention plan to anticipate the need for water," explained the winery's director, Jean-Pierre Papy, "If we can help fight the fire, the winegrowers and the members of the board are very much in favour."
The Pyrénées-Orientales department on the Spanish border is the most drought-affected department in France. There has not been a comparable situation there since 1959, when statistics were first collected for each department, according to data from the French weather service Météo-France.
(uka / Source: AFP, Revue du Vin de France - Photo: Raffaella Usai)