Today is Monday, 9 September 2024.
A recent press release from the European Commission indicates an order of €600 million for the acquisition of twelve new amphibious firefighting aircraft.
This relates to a reinforcement of the rescEU fleet - European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism - a group created to further protect European citizens against disasters and manage emerging risks.
With support from the Emergency Management Service Copernicus - Europe’s eyes on Earth - which regularly produces satellite maps to help with forest fires. For reference, in 2023 alone, Copernicus was activated 25 times for wildfires, with the number of fires above average.
In case you haven't seen it, here's how the European Union prepared for the 2024 wildfire season.
A few days ago, in an article about the Brazilian Pantanal, we made reference to the study “2023: A year of intense global wildfire activity” by Copernicus.
All planes will be amphibious aircrafts of the DHC-515 FIREFIGHTER™ type, with a capacity of more than 6 thousand liters of water per flight, manufactured by De Havilland Aircraft of Canada (DHC). Water scooping is done in low-flying flight and is very fast, around 12 seconds.
The planes are being acquired through the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a government body responsible for promoting international trade in Canadian products.
Back to Europe, considering the increase in wildfires, these new planes will be distributed between Croatia, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain.
Click on the image below to learn more about this firefighting plane or below for a video.
