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From the CTIF Forest Fire Commission meeting in Prague, December 2024.
02 Jan 2025

The CTIF Forest Fire Commission met in Prague i December

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The host country of this year's meeting was the Czech Republic, from 4 to 7 December 2024. A total of 13 countries participated in Prague, including one country who came for the first time. 

Specifically, France, Germany, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Norway and Greece participated, with the new participation of Hungary. New members will be added to the next meeting of the subcommittee, from USA, Chile and Spain.

Presentations were made by all countries on the lessons and good techniques from the previous fire season 2024, mainly on the occurrence of "extreme" forest fires that in recent years have made their presence felt not only in Mediterranean countries but also throughout Europe, confirming the concerns of scientists about the climate crisis and its devastating consequences. For these specific presentations, all participants have committed to creating a special brochure separately for each country.

The countries showed particular interest in the behaviour of forest fires in Greece last summer, but also in the coordination of the big number of aerial resources and the different types that they had to manage. It is noted that during this year's fire season, the phenomenon of forest fires was very intense, mainly in Greece but also in Portugal, which made a very impressive presentation on the challenges they had faced in early September, while Mediterranean countries such as France and Croatia did not face the same phenomena. Conversely, instead of forest fires, Austria and Germany had to deal with floods.

Presentations were made by the guests regarding their personnel, their structure, their operations, as well as a tour of the Training Centew of their special forces for natural disasters in the wider area of ​​Zbiroh. Their equipment regarding forest fires is truly impressive, special uniforms, manual tools for extinguishing forest fires, vehicles, pumps, special backpacks for transporting pipes, 5,000 liter tanks for transporting it to high altitudes and their use by Special Forces, a tank of approximately 55,000 liters for refuelling from helicopters in isolated areas.

Finally, issues related to our cooperation and participation with the other countries of the specific subcommittee and concerning forest fires in European projects were discussed. The European project “DIREKTION” was also discussed, in which all committees and all members of the countries of the CTIF participate.

The next meeting of the subcommittee on forest fires will be held in Bordeaux, France, the same week as the International Aerial Firefighting Conference of Europe from 24-27 March 2025.

 
Text by Zisoula Ntasiou
Photos by CTIF