On Thursday 22 August, the European Union sent two Canadair water bomber planes to the Madeira archipelago to fight a wildfire that has been raging there since 15 August. On Wednesday 21 August, Portugal asked the EU for help by calling on the Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism. Madeira’s forest is a World Heritage Site.
The planes of the RescEU firefighting fleet have left Spain, announced the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, on the X social network on Thursday 22 August.
In addition, the EU provided satellite images of the affected area to the local authorities, thanks to the Copernicus emergency satellite system.
Several countries affected. Greece and Albania also received emergency aid from the EU in the fight against wildfires in mid-August 2024. Two RescEU firefighting planes and two helicopters were sent to Greece by Italy, France and Serbia. Albania, for its part, was helped by a Romanian multi-purpose military aircraft on 14 August.
Greece itself helped Bulgaria put out a wildfire at the beginning of August, while North Macedonia received support from Germany and Sweden.
Continuing to fight wildfires. The European Union has launched the production of twelve amphibious firefighting planes to create a permanent firefighting fleet. The first batch of these planes is due for delivery at the end of 2027. In addition, the first batch of helicopters is due to arrive in 2026.
With the creation of a fleet of RescEU reserve aircraft, the European Union wants to be able to react quickly to wildfires at a time when “wildfire seasons become longer, deadly and more unpredictable”, said Janez Lenarčič in a press release on Tuesday 13 August.
This permanent fleet will be divided between Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Its creation is made possible by the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
In addition to these acquisitions financed by the European Commission, ten additional fire-fighting planes have been purchased directly by the Member States for their national fleets.
RescEU and the European Civil Protection Pool currently have 28 planes and 4 helicopters stationed in ten Member States. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)