It is inevitable to observe the anguishing scenes that are being experienced these days in Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Italy without ceasing to consider the possibility that our territory suffers fires of a similar magnitude, as it has experienced in the past. In fact, this very week the Valencian Community has experienced a red alert due to the risk of fires, due to the extremely high temperatures and weather conditions that included the possibility of storms. But how does the Valencian administration prepare, what resources are available to monitor and prevent situations of this type?
Between July and September, three Generalitat air vehicles carry out reconnaissance flights over seven preventive surveillance routes, and they do so loaded with water and retardant. These seven routes have been established through the three provinces, attending to the territories with the largest forest mass. As José María Ángel, regional secretary for Security and Emergencies, explains, “flights take place from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., one in each province.”
What it is about is reinforcing the aerial and terrestrial surveillance of the forest area of ??the Valencian Community and for this “it is essential to have the detailed forecast of the State Meteorological Agency”, which allows not only to establish the appropriate alert level , but to know, in the event of an accident, matters as important as the evolution of the wind at a certain point.
As a novelty this year, the heliborne units of the Forest Fire Service have six helicopters and will maintain them throughout the year, thus doubling the air resources available to these units up to now.
The Generalitat deploys a daily operation made up of more than 800 professionals dedicated to the prevention and extinction of forest fires. The device is made up of emergency technical personnel and the Generalitat Forest Fire Service, which has 40 fire engines and 18 aerial means. In addition, the KAMOV, an air resource of great capacity and efficiency, will be active in the Valencian Community until October 16.
In the operation, technical forestry personnel, environmental agents, personnel at fixed observatories, prevention units, as well as fire prevention centers and a support team are mobilized.
To this device are added the troops of the provincial firefighters consortiums and the municipal firefighters of the provincial capitals, in addition to the State security forces and bodies, which maintain the endowments in the parks and, when it is the case that the weather forecast is favorable to the spread of fires, surveillance shifts are reinforced.
Fires such as those that are breaking out these days in Greece or Italy, those that devastate large areas of Canada, or the one that devastated the Villanueva de Víver area in March, outside the “normal” fire season, are considered “of sixth generation”, that is, fast and aggressive fires, in which the flames can exceed the speed of 6 km/h, which is between six and twelve times the speed of a typical fire. They demand a greater reaction capacity and the use of increasingly sophisticated means.
José María Ángel explains that another of the modern aerial means that is offering excellent results are drones, used at night, when the participation of planes and helicopters is not feasible, to control the evolution of fire, temperature and wind. , which makes it possible to act more effectively from dawn on.
