Some hope to prevent fires in PT from growing too big, with many burning fronts and becoming difficult to contain. If there is an initial well coordinated attack with those airplanes, each one delivering at least 6000 litres of water, then the fires should not become uncontrollable:
"Because many forests are burning in Europe, the EU is creating its own fire-fighting aircraft for the first time. The member states will also help each other out with machines - two of which are in Germany.
The colour of hope is yellow. When the forests in Europe are burning like this summer, on Rhodes and near Athens, on Cyprus and Sicily, in Spain and Portugal, the fire brigade on the ground sometimes has no chance without water from above. Then you first hear the whirring of the propellers, see a spot on the horizon, and soon a large yellow device with a wingspan of almost 30 meters casts its shadow ahead, flying low over the seat of the fire. It releases more than 6,000 litres of water in order to fill up again in the nearest body of water. The Canadair CL - 415, legendary fire-fighting aircraft, the best-selling in the world, mostly painted in rich yellow with red accents, has helped to prevent many an inferno. If only there were more of that on the old, burning continent.
That's what the EU Commission thought too. A few days ago, it announced that it wanted to buy its own aircraft to fight forest fires for the first time. An EU fleet of its own, paid for with EU money, in addition to the pool of 28 aircraft provided so far by the member states. The authority wants to sign sales contracts for up to twelve machines with the manufacturer De Havilland Canada this year, said Civil Protection Commissioner Janez Lenarčič. Twelve more would procure Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The first example of the DHC - 515 , the successor to the CL - 415 , could be delivered in three and a half years, with a larger water tank and more assistance systems. The last in 2030.
An emergency centre in Brussels distributes emergency services
The fires of the past decade not only left burnt landscapes in their wake, but also made an impression on disaster relief workers. If there was a fire in several places in different countries at the same time, the EU's civil protection procedure quickly reached its limits. EU member states and nine non-EU countries activate it when an emergency exceeds national capacities. Then the EU emergency centre in Brussels jumps in and distributes emergency services, in the event of fire or flood disasters.
Four years ago, the Commission expanded the procedure with a program called rescEU, which was put to the test for the first time the following year with the outbreak of the pandemic. For fire protection, rescEU has so far maintained the aforementioned pool of 28 aircraft: 14 large Canadair and 14 small aircraft, which belong to and are stationed in various member states, plus four helicopters and 450 firefighters. Half a dozen requests for help were already received in Brussels in 2023, mainly because of the forest fires that destroyed an area the size of Saarland this year.
According to experts, airplanes are not the only solution for vegetation fires, but they can help. Especially on the Mediterranean, where
the fire brigade is often slower than the wind, which fans a fire and carries it further. But also in Germany, where there were reservations about own fire-fighting aircraft before the droughts and fires of recent years. Two single-engine light aircraft belonging to the EU reserve have been stationed at Braunschweig-Wolfsburg Airport since June. They are constantly operational until the end of October."
Wegen der zunehmenden Waldbrände kauft die EU erstmals selbst Löschflugzeuge.
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