Letters
Wanting to help French firefighters is laudable - but counterproductive
Reader says amateur firefighting can hinder rescue efforts
To the Editor,
I’m not surprised that help from ordinary folk in fighting fires should be partially challenged.
Firefighters are trained to cope with the hellish situations they are at present faced with. Others are not.
Supplying water is obviously praiseworthy and necessary; on the other hand, gung-ho blokes jumping into a four-by-four and dashing into a danger zone armed with a chainsaw is reckless in the extreme, as it is clearly likely to hinder operations, such as the dropping of tons of water from the air.
Obviously such drops cannot take place if there are people on the ground below playing at being heroes.
These same people may also get into difficulties and therefore firemen will have to be dispatched to rescue them.
Thus this kind of behaviour, however laudable, can turn out to be completely counter-productive.
Reducing it to French bureaucracy indulging in unnecessary nitpicking is perhaps, in this case, somewhat unfair.
S. L., by email
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