Car stickers to support firefighters sell out in France

A small car sticker designed to thank firefighters after the devastating Gironde wildfires of 2022 has returned this year, with demand once again being much higher than its creators expected.

The sticker was first created by three friends, Sandra Ladoire, Audrey Fasquel and Anne Rousseau-Tuffnell, after the fires that devastated parts of Gironde in 2022.

“We saw children who had made drawings to thank the firefighters,” Ms Ladoire told The Connexion. “We thought, why not make an image that remains and symbolises the fires?”

Ms Rousseau-Tuffnell, who lives in neighbouring Charente-Maritime, created the original design, showing the outline of Gironde as a stylised flame, with a firefighter's face and the words “Merci à tous - Thank you to everyone”.

Within days, so many people inquired about the stickers, that around 30,000 were eventually distributed.

“We did not expect such a success at all,” Ms Ladoire said.

A new message for 2026

When wildfires returned to Gironde this summer, the three friends decided to update the design rather than simply reproduce the original.

“The story is not the same compared with 2022,” Ms Ladoire said. “We did not want to just copy and paste the drawing.”

The 2026 version keeps the original message of thanks but adds a second, more political message: “Donnez-nous les moyens - Give us the resources”.

The new message calls for more human and material resources to be made available to prevent another disaster of the same scale.

“We really don't want this to happen again,” the three of them said and agreed on. 

“In 2022, we already thought the situation was insane. But then, in 2026, it was much more catastrophic, on a scale with mega-fires we had never seen before,” Ms Ladoire 

“Our first message is solidarity. We thank everyone, that is our first message. But at the same time, we want to be more active, because we cannot just sit back and do nothing.”

The stickers are being produced through donations from printers and are then distributed free of charge through collection points.

The three friends list the locations on their Facebook page and regularly update them as new stocks arrive.

But there is one problem: they currently have far fewer stickers than they did in 2022.

“We currently have 6,000, whereas in 2022 we made 30,000,” Ms Ladoire said.

The friends are therefore looking for more printers willing to join the initiative and produce stickers free of charge.

“Finding printers is how people can help us,” she said.

The aim is to distribute them to as many people as possible without charging for them.

‘We would rather not have to do all this again’

The response so far has again been once again very positive.

Some people want the sticker because they themselves helped during the fires, while others have been affected personally or have family members who were involved.

Some firefighters have even put the sticker on their lockers as a reminder of what happened this summer.

“When I left stickers at the fire station, the firefighters were grateful because the gesture touched them,” Ms Fasquel said.

“It is just a small sticker, but for them it is something that will remain.”

“The irony is that they are the ones thanking us, when we are the ones saying thank you to them,” she added.

For the three friends, however, the hope is that this will be the last time they have to make the sticker.

“We would rather not have to do all this again,” Ms Ladoire said. “It would be better without the fires.”