Wildfires Rage - Europe Burns - Australia & The French Connection -- Part 2

Some of the Most dangerous elements in wildfires devastation -- High winds + Hot Embers/Sparks lead to Ember Attacks -- Enter homes via the Eaves - Part 1.

Aug 03, 2026

With careful planning, homeowners can avoid many wildfire risk management pitfalls — refer to Part 1 for help.

In Bendigo Victoria, Australia there is a unique French factory that builds Australian designed war-fighting vehicles and also fire-fighting vehicles too.

Thales — The Australian ~ French Connection

How a Paris-headquartered defence giant turns Australian steel into the world's most battle-proven protected mobility vehicle — and how its French operations wire Europe's armoured fleets.

A Bushmaster PMV in Australian service, gunner manned on the roof mount.
The type survived more than a hundred IED strikes in Afghanistan with no crew fatalities.

Thales S.A. is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced electronic systems for defence and commercial markets, tracing its lineage to Thomson-CSF, created in 1968 from the merger of Thomson’s electronics division with CSF.

The company was rebranded Thales in December 2000 and today the group is a global technology leader headquartered in Paris with more than 85,000 employees on five continents, active in defence, aerospace, space, cyber and digital markets.

Thales's path into armoured vehicle manufacturing runs through Australia. In November 1999, the privatised Australian Defence Industries [ADI] — the company that had just won the Bushmaster contract for its Bendigo facility. After more mergers and acquisitions Thales was contracted to build the Bushmaster PMV.

More than 1,300 Bushmasters have been manufactured at Thales’ Bendigo facility, and with a new A$750 million order for 268 “next generation” Bushmasters signed in April 2026, production will continue into the 2030s and reach roughly 1,700 vehicles.

Defence contracts being signed at Thales plant in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.

FireKing - A Bushmaster That Hunts Bushfires

The FireKing is the civilian firefighting derivative of the Bushmaster, jointly developed with Timoney Technology and described by Thales as the world’s first purposely designed armoured bushfire-fighting vehicle.

Instead of a mine blast, the enemy here is a fast-moving bushfire — and the same monocoque philosophy that deflects explosions is used to build a passive crew-survival module resistant to radiant heat and flame engulfment — know as a “burn-over event.”

This is what Australian — NSW Fire & Rescue crews experienced in a Burnover!

Below is the safest fire-fighting to be in for these events - The FireKing.

Source: Capt. G Bates ~ Fireking roadtest - Mt Gambier SA Australia - 2007.

In independent testing developed by CSIRO with Australian fire authorities, the FireKing was exposed to a total heat flux exceeding 120 kW/m² for more than 33 seconds, replicating a Fire Danger Index of 50 with 15 tonnes/ha fuel loading.

During the exposure, cabin temperature rose by less than 20 °C above ambient, and the vehicle remained drivable afterwards.

The Problem — Australia Supplies the Armoured Steel — France Builds the Armoured Mind

Thales - France, is the electronics and information-systems backbone of France’s SCORPION programme, which is renewing the French Army’s medium-weight fleet with the Griffon, Jaguar and Serval wheeled armoured vehicles.

France has a massive, state-funded wildfire suppression organisation [the Sécurité Civile Canadair fleet] and a doctrine of aggressive, mandatory early evacuations.
France has successfully prevented mass casualty events, even as the total area burned and the financial costs have skyrocketed.

The burden of these megafires falls heavily on the sapeurs-pompiers [firefighters] and through mass displacement rather than direct fatalities:

Firefighter Casualties: By mid-July 2026, three firefighters had already died in the line of duty during the summer season.
During the massive Saumos fire in Gironde in 2026 alone, 88 firefighters sustained injuries while battling the flames.
Mass Evacuations: To protect civilians, the French state orders sweeping displacements when fires approach the Wildland-Urban Interface [WUI].
The 2026 Gironde fires forced the emergency evacuation of 220,000 people in a matter of days.

There are No FireKings in France…..

However…… there are 2 artisanal Armoured Fire-fighting vehicles, based on the US M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier [APC] — bases in Corsica.

Multi-role use: Beyond wildfires, the “chars” are also tasked for floods and heavy snowstorms in the Corsican mountains.

National reserve role: In July 2026 both vehicles were shipped to the French mainland to reinforce the battle against the devastating fires in Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales, where crews reported they “were of great help.”

Why Does France Not Deploy Armoured Vehicles?

Right next door to France is EU & NATO partner Germany — which built single prototypes — they could not drive Sales or find any Market for them.

Now why would that be the case??

In Tragic News Just In — an Australian Helicopter has crashed in Greek Wildfire Operations.

This is the RED [Rescue - Extinguish - Defend] conversion of the GER Marder IFV.

Why would ANY NATION trashed by wildfires choose NOT to have these vehicles?

Is Theodore Rentzos — the Smartest Firefighting Inventor in Europe ??

He built his own armoured firefighting vehicle - Jumbo
- to help Greece successfully combat wildfires.

A Call to Action

If you have suffered from personal, property or community losses during the recent European Wildfires — then contact your Political Representative and ask the Hard Question;