Agriculture: Harvests heavily impacted by fires

A combine harvester on fire while it was still 38 degrees that evening in Haute-Garonne. The driver of the machine just had time to jump out of his machine, which he filmed as the fire started, after moving it away from the houses. Extreme heat and harvests do not mix well. Throughout France, in recent weeks, fires have multiplied in the fields. A simple spark and it's disaster. Around the charred carcass of the combine harvester, near Toulouse, we find the farming family who had just acquired it. Behind the cab, unrecognizable, part of the harvest is still there. A shock for René Latger, who has never experienced such a fire during the harvest: "It was hard for me."

Haute-Garonne has already recorded thirty harvest fires this year, five times more than last year. The latest one broke out on a 9-hectare plot of organic wheat. Everything happened very quickly. A total of €15,000 in losses for the farmer, who was helpless in the face of the flames. One of the solutions recommended by the area's firefighters: having a water tank or reserve. In the absence of a tank, other solutions exist. A harvester in full action can very quickly cause a spark by cutting the wheat in front or crushing it in the rear. To limit the risks, another machine works in parallel on the already harvested areas, burying, with its discs, any remaining straw that could catch fire.

Watch the full report in the video above.