Forest and macchia fire
Every year, thousands of hectares (one hectare is 2.4711 acres) of
wood
and macchia go up in flames in
Corsica. Estimates are that about 10% of
the fires start themselves, while 90% are started by carelessness and
arson. Herdsmen root out new pastureland, tourists throw away burning
stubs, and some campers start camp fires despite of the total
prohibition. Sometimes hunters stir up
wild boars with fire.
The Corse don't care much about forest and macchia fires as long as
they don't get close to settlements - that's not unconcern but realism.
There are just too many of them to fight them all, and the terrain is
mostly impassable, so extinguishing is limited to aircrafts. The old
"Canadair" aircrafts are expensive toys, one flight hour costs about
20,000 FF! These old rattletraps are
fueled with petrol, not kerosine, and they consume quite a lot of it;
their capacity is limited to 5,300 liters (1400 US gallons) of water.
For the pilots, it's a hard job to do: the cockpits are not
air-conditioned, and they don't have instruments that would allow them
to navigate in the smoke.
The fires are the main reason why camping is generally prohibited in
Corsica (except for camping sites and near refuges). It is not only to
stop people from starting camp fires but to have them sleep in places
where they can be found and rescued in case of an oncoming fire.