EU wildfire report highlights role of aerial firefighting

The annual edition of ‘Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa’ has been published by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC).

This report provides information and assessment of forest fires’ effects in the pan-European region during 2021. It also details the efforts of each country for wildlife protection, preparation and firefighting, and how to mitigate forest fires in the first place. It explains the aerial support measures, including helicopter support, aerial firefighting, and water buckets.

It concluded that last year’s fire season was the second worst in European Union (EU) territory in terms of the area that was burnt, since records began in 2006. More than 5,500 km² of land was burnt in 2021.

The report does not cover this year’s fires, which have been more destructive than those of 2021. An area of 8,600 km² has already burnt this year.

However, the number of human casualties has been limited due to prevention measures taken by EU member states and the EU Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). The UCPM was upgraded with rescEU in 2019. Last year, the EU further increased the UCPM’s capacity by adding to its aerial firefighting means to assist countries during fire season, which has been extended during this year for the 2023 fire campaign.

This year though, the UCPM was activated 11 times by six countries requesting planes, helicopters, and firefighters. This is the second year with more requests to the UCPM in the last decade.

The EC plans to rapidly expand rescEU in the next few years, having approved a €170 million budget for the program from summer 2023. The budget will support an accelerated expansion of fleet and ground teams in response to the growing threat of wildfires.