As early as mid-March 2024, the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) reported 1,227 wildfires within European Union (EU) countries.

“So far in 2024, there have been almost double the average number of fires for this time of year,” EFFIS stated. That’s alarming, but needs to be taken in perspective. None of these had a major impact in terms of burnt areas, according to the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Critical drought conditions over winter 2023–24, though, have left many areas across Mediterranean Europe and north Africa already tinder-dry. In the USA, the area of land burned by spring 2024 was already almost double the seasonal norm, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

“Temperatures trending above average across the country from June through August could set the stage for a very active fire season,” the NIFC warned. By March, Texas was already battling the largest wildfire in the state’s history, and aerial firefighting company Bridger Aerospace had been tasked by the US Forest Service and the State of Texas to send out two CL-415EAF aircraft to the state in the earliest seasonal scooper deployment in the company’s history. “The size and expansion rate of the fires in Texas are catastrophic,” commented Tim Sheehy, CEO of Bridger, at the time.

More frequent and simultaneous

From the perspective of the aerial firefighting community in the northern hemisphere, the nightmare trend is toward multiple, simultaneous fire outbreaks that will stress even multinational firefighting resources to their limits. A new study by the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), funded by the US Department of Energy and the US National Science Foundation, finds that simultaneous outbreaks of several wildfires of 1,000 acres or more will become at least twice as frequent in coming decades in the western USA.

“Higher temperatures and drier conditions will greatly increase the risk of simultaneous wildfires throughout the west,” said NCAR scientist Seth McGinnis, the lead author of the study. “The worst seasons for simultaneous fires are the ones that are going to increase the most in the future,” he warned.

The worst seasons for simultaneous fires are the ones that are going to increase the most in the future

Elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, Himalayan regions including Kashmir and Nepal over the 2023–24 dry season also struggled to cope with record numbers of drought-aggravated wildfires. Russia, too, faced “high” and “extreme” wildfire danger this year, according to Russia’s state Hydrometeorological Centre, while some experts warned of a wildfire crisis due to inadequate state firefighting resources.

Quoted in The Moscow Times, an independent online news outlet, Grigory Kuksin, the Founder of the Landscape Fire Prevention Center, an NGO, said it was unlikely that Russia would experience fewer fires in 2024 than in 2023. “It’s doubtful that they will be managed better,” said Kuksin.

More rescEU assets shared

Last year’s apocalyptic European wildfire season required EU countries to join forces to scramble fixed-wing aircraft and rotorcraft in response to Greece’s call for help in what became the biggest ever rescEU aerial firefighting operation. This year, 10 member states are braced to provide aerial firefighting support across Europe with a fleet comprising four helicopters (one each from France and Greece, with two from Czechia), 14 medium amphibious aircraft from Croatia, Italy, Spain, and France, and a further 14 light planes. That’s a not insignificant increase in resources over last year’s fire season, when rescEU fielded 24 fixed-wing aircraft and four rotorcraft.

In the Mediterranean, the wildfire season typically coincides with the peak summer tourism period, virtually guaranteeing that any wildfire grabs international media attention and high-profile coverage of holidaymakers being evacuated from hotels in the line of fire.

Greece’s 2024 season sparked in June, with outbreaks on the mainland, Crete, and Aegean islands including Serifos, Chios and Thassos, and disproportionate media attention given to a relatively minor and quickly contained fire on the popular holiday island of Kos. Fires on the outskirts of Athens were also quickly contained, but Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Greeks to prepare for a difficult 2024 wildfire season. “The difficult times are still ahead of us,” he said.

The EU needs to build up its aerial firefighting fleet to enable a rapid response to situations where wildfires affect more than one member state simultaneously

By July, rescEU aerial firefighting assets had also been deployed to Cyprus to combat fires near the popular holiday resort of Paphos. “Recent summers have clearly shown that more firefighting assets are needed at EU level,” acknowledged Janez Lenarčič, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management. “The acquisition of additional firefighting aircraft underscores the EU’s commitment to bolstering its capacity to respond effectively to wildfires,” he added.

The EU needs to build up its aerial firefighting fleet to enable a rapid response to situations where wildfires affect more than one member state simultaneously, he continued.

More funding allocated

Building a fleet is not going to happen overnight. The European Commission has allocated €600 million to acquire 12 new firefighting planes and a number of helicopters, but the fixed-wing firefighting aircraft type of choice, the DHC-515 – the planned successor to the CL-215 and CL-415 aircraft which have been the workhorses of aerial firefight fleets worldwide for up to half a century – is barely off the drawing board. Production of the new type is not expected to begin until 2026 at the earliest, and De Havilland says it hopes to start delivery in 2027.

A start has been made, though. In March, Croatia and Greece became the first two EU countries to sign contracts for the first aircraft in what Lenarčič called “a new generation of European firefighting aerial capacity”.

“This is an important step to acquiring the aircraft which will help protect citizens not just in Croatia and Greece but across Europe. It will be 100% paid for by the European Commission as part of our strengthened rescEU firefighting capacity ready to fight ever more intense wildfires in Europe,” Lenarčič added. Spain, France, Italy and Portugal will also host elements of the new EU aerial firefighting fleet.

DHC will supply Greece with seven DHC-515 scooper aircraft, spare parts, and training and support, and will supply two DHC-515s to Croatia, expanding that country’s fleet to six aircraft.

Like most at-risk regions, agencies in Spain’s Canary Islands have taken a holistic approach

Elsewhere in Europe, parched regions have been preparing since spring 2024 for yet another severe fire season. Like most at-risk regions, agencies in Spain’s Canary Islands have taken a holistic approach, with the autonomous region’s Department of Territorial Policy, Territorial Cohesion, and Water forming a special forest fire prevention and extinction unit of 18 crewed fixed-wing and rotorcraft supporting boots on the ground, including approximately 1,450 personnel and 174 vehicles to be mobilized throughout 2024.

Operating in Europe

The EU’s approach is characteristically statist (or meta-statist), and many EU member states lean towards investing in and deploying aerial firefighting fleets owned and operated by government agencies, though Spain, Italy and Portugal contract out aerial firefighting to private sector operators, such as Avincis.

Other major players in the aerial firefighting private sector are also eyeing the European market for their services as European states seek to bolster their fleets in the short term while they await delivery of rescEU’s new DHC-515s and other aircraft.

In November Bridger, one of the USA’s largest aerial firefighting companies, announced it would buy four Canadair CL-215T scooper aircraft from the Spanish government. Bridger said it expected the first two aircraft to be ready for contract operations in Europe this summer. The deal “helps strategically position Bridger to diversify internationally [and] create exposure to the European fire season,” according to McAndrew Rudisill, Bridger’s Chief Investment Officer.

Typically, rescEU and European national firefighting fleets in action operate over a relatively short radius. Canadian firefighters, on the other hand, often must combat fires over much wider expanses of more remote forest land.

The vastness of Canada

After a decade or more of trying to curb the advance of wildfires through forest health investment, while maintaining suppression spending at the same relative amounts, it has become clear that the solution needs to be a combination of investment in prevention, suppression, and community hardening

Last year’s fire season – Canada’s worst ever – taxed the resources of Canada’s aerial firefighting fleet to, and even beyond, its limits. Canadian federal and provincial governments scrambled to source firefighting rotorcraft wherever they could be found, including from private sector operators, such as Columbia Helicopters.

Almost 30,000 square miles of forest burned in outbreaks that included dozens of mega-fires in western Canada, some of which smoldered underground through the winter, ready to erupt in 2024. Triggered by high temperatures and high winds, Canada’s first big wildfire broke out at Parker Lake in British Columbia this May, forcing the evacuation of 4,000 people from nearby Fort Nelson. By mid-June, around 125 square miles had burned in outbreaks in British Columbia alone.

Some private sector sources argue that new strategies – perhaps including better interagency cooperation and increased spending – are needed. “What we’re doing now isn’t working,” said John Gould, President of the United Aerial Firefighting Association (UAFA) – an organization set up in the USA in 2022 with the stated aim of promoting standardization in aerial firefighting “through education, advocacy, and collaboration.”

“After a decade or more of trying to curb the advance of wildfires through forest health investment, while maintaining suppression spending at the same relative amounts, it has become clear that the solution needs to be a combination of investment in prevention, suppression, and community hardening,” the UAFA President explained.

Collaborative America

The US State of Wyoming is also committed to collaboration, according to State Forester Kelly Norris. The Wyoming Wildland Fire Interagency group, with the Wyoming State Forestry Division and Bureau of Land Management at its core, has strong partnerships backed up by agreements, Norris said. “Wyoming takes an ‘all hands, all lands’ approach to wildland fire suppression,” said Norris. “Interagency coordination is important for Wyoming as we continue to work together to protect our communities, our infrastructure, watersheds and critical resources.”

From mid-June, Wyoming State Forestry has contributed two single-engine air tankers and a Type 3 helicopter and crew to the interagency group.

Some US agencies see an increased role for helicopters not only in direct fire suppression but also in rapidly transporting ground firefighters to sites of initial outbreaks.

In May, ahead of the summer fire season months, the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands contracted Utah-based Mountain West Helicopter to add a third such ‘helitack’ rotorcraft to its fleet. The five-year contract calls for the helicopter to be available for 120 days per year. The Type 3 helicopter can also be equipped with a water bucket to perform water drops for fire suppression. “Adding this helitack crew is the next logical step in expanding our aviation capabilities within the Division,” said Mike Melton, Utah’s Deputy State Fire Management Officer for Aviation. “Adding this aircraft and crew augments our heavy lift aircraft capabilities by getting boots on the ground quickly into inaccessible areas as well as the wildland–urban interface.”

Figuring out new strategies and tactics to address new challenges – most notably, the threat of multiple simultaneous outbreaks – is a work still in progress

The international aerial firefighting community has faced interesting times across the northern hemisphere this summer. Figuring out new strategies and tactics to address new challenges – most notably, the threat of multiple simultaneous outbreaks – is a work still in progress. Expanding regional, national, and international firefighting fleets inevitably takes time. For the next few years, government agencies and private sector operators will have to find ways to make do with available resources.