Here in the South of France, fire is feared. The lack of rain, hot sun and the fierce Mistral wind combine to make the countryside an ideal fire bed.
Between May and October fires are banned. Even open barbecues are forbidden.
But the local farmers and peasants used to disregard this law and firemen spent weeks chasing dozen of small landowners with smoke rising from their property.
Many of these fires resulted in huge blazes that wiped out hundreds of acres of woodland and vinyards.
Something had to be done.
One day a farmer, standing beside a blazing pile of rubbish, was astonished to see a helicopter land in his field. A fireman walked across and told him to put out the fire immediately as he was breaking the law.
The farmer begrudingly obeyed, the fireman handed the farmer a piece of paper, not a fine, but a bill, 3000 euros for the use of the helicopter. Now it was the farmer who was about to burst into flame.
News of the incident spread faster than a Mistral fuelled fire, and since, there has not been a plume of smoke in the deep blue sky, and the firemen sleep peacfully in their fire stations.