Une technique très encadrée qui ne peut être pratiquée que par des pompiers spécifiquement formés. – Midi Libre
Le lieutenant-colonel Nicolas Coste a été l’artisan du renouveau de cette technique qui a failli disparaître. Il a formé au Vigan et à l’étranger des centaines de sapeur-pompiers.
It was at the Vigan Main Rescue Center in 1981 that Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Coste, who had just retired, began his career as a volunteer firefighter. And it was with Commander Jacky Pages, then head of the CSP du Vigan, and the elders that he learned to light counter-fires to fight forest fires.
This ancestral technique, then frequently used on forest fires in the Cévennes, and to a lesser extent in other territories, declined in the 90s and disappeared from the national firefighter regulations in 2001.
But convinced of the usefulness and effectiveness of this technique, Captain Nicolas Coste will then lead, in 1998, a national working group with the Interdepartmental Agreement for the Protection of the Forest, based in Aix-en-Provence, to revive and recognize this counter-fire technique.
This will then be done 4 years later: tactical fire is included in the law of July 13, 2004, known as the Civil Security law.
Anticipated and measured, it must be implemented by specially trained personnel, after authorization from the Commander of rescue operations.
200 firefighters from all over France have trained in Vigan
Since 2005, the first national training courses for tactical fire specialists have been organized in Le Vigan, under the aegis of the Valabre Civil Security School (Bouches-du-Rhône). Thus, under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Coste, nearly 200 specialists, firefighters and forestry personnel from nearly 30 French departments have come to train in Le Vigan over the past 20 years.
At the same time, Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Coste is participating in the drafting of national forest fire reference documents and includes tactical fire techniques. The forest fire doctrine and operational technique guides will be validated at the national level in 2021.
A technique that has proven itself over the past 20 years: since 2004, tactical fires have produced very good results and have contributed, alongside other firefighting techniques, to controlling and then extinguishing a number of forest fires across the country: Gard, Hérault, Lozère, Aveyron, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales, Corsica, Gironde, Landes, Isère, Réunion, etc. In Gard, Lieutenant-Colonel Coste intervened in particular on the major fire in Bordezac. He has led several tactical fire operations, some of which were large-scale throughout France.
A know-how exported abroad and to overseas territories
During his career, Nicolas Coste has exported his know-how and experience internationally, to 12 countries: during earthquakes in Armenia and Turkey, or forest fires in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Australia, North Macedonia, Zaire, New Caledonia, etc.
Today, the French doctrine and model in terms of tactical fires inspires other countries around the world.
“I sincerely thank all the people who have committed and invested in developing this promising fighting technique, which has been able to survive the years and adapt to new societal and climatic contexts. And I have a special thought for all the veterans who taught us this know-how”, said Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolas Coste, at the time of his retirement.