France's Gironde region experienced severe wildfires this summer, leading to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents, the deaths of four firefighters and injuries to 150 others.

The traditional practice of stationing human lookouts in towers has been replaced in the region by AI‑assisted cameras that can detect smoke up to 20 km away. The cameras, installed by Midgard and FireTracking, have reduced false alarms by distinguishing smoke from dust.

When a fire is detected, an alert is sent to firefighters' phones, which display real‑time video from a 40× zoom camera and a map showing the fire's location, nearby structures and a simulation of its projected spread. Over the past ten days the system identified seven fires 15 minutes before the first emergency call.

Chief sergeant Guillaume Millet of the Gironde fire service said the technology improves early detection but does not replace the need for ground crews. He noted that firefighters still must pull hoses through forests to extinguish flames, and aircraft such as Canadair planes only lower fire intensity before crews finish the work.

Researchers are developing drones that can drop water or fire‑suppressing chemicals and that may provide aerial surveillance before crews enter a fire zone. A heavy‑lifting drone being tested by Daidelos could hover and release up to 1.2 tonnes of water, while other concepts involve heat‑activated grenades that disperse chemicals to interrupt combustion. However, no drone system has yet been capable of fully suppressing a large wildfire.

The detection system covered roughly 6,000 sq km at a cost of about €1.2 million. Agricultural land in the region experiences around 300 crop fires each year. The French civil protection service's Condor programme is testing solar‑powered drones equipped with AI cameras, and additional projects use sensors to measure gases released before flames become visible.

Millet emphasized that, despite advances, the primary role of firefighters on the ground remains essential, a practice that has continued since the formation of the first modern fire brigade in the Netherlands in the 1670s.