SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, May 22. (EUROPE PRESS) –
This summer, the Canary Islands will have 1,401 troops, 160 vehicles and 18 manned aerial means, as well as several drone units, belonging to different administrations, for the 2023 forest fire prevention and extinction campaign.
This has been revealed this Monday at the coordination meeting of the Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Attention due to Forest Fires (Infoca), directed by the Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security, Julio Pérez, who has highlighted, to Throughout the meeting, the improvement registered both in the means and in their services as well as in coordination between administrations and has encouraged those present to continue working in this line.
Once the meeting was over, in which representatives of the central government delegation in the Canary Islands, the Canary Islands Executive and councils of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, Aemet, the National Police Corps, the Civil Guard, Unit Emergency Military (UME) and General Corps of the Canary Islands Police (CGPC), who have presented the list of media attached to INFOCA by each administration for the 2023 campaign and have appointed the members of the Advisory Committee, which will be constituted in the in the event of an emergency.
During the meeting, the protocol for activating means and resources at the regional level was analyzed, as well as the operation of the national Mobile Analysis and Planning Units (UMAP) and their forest fire prevention and analysis teams, includes a note from the Counseling.
The total of the 1,401 human resources includes the sum of the resources of the State Government, the Canary Islands and five councils.
The figure includes technical personnel, management and coordination, support, operational commanders, firefighting teams, air coordinators and crews, and does not include operations that are not specific to forest fires such as urban firefighters, Cecoes, police, health and emergency personnel. Logistics.
In addition, the device will have, without prejudice to those that may be added additionally, 160 fire-engine vehicles (motherships, heavy, medium and light), 17 helicopters (heavy, medium and light) and a cargo plane on the ground (ACT). , aerial means that will be used both for extinction and for transport.
To these would be added, where appropriate, the troops and means of the UME that are transferred from the Peninsula, or the troops of the Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades and the planes of Group 43 of the Air Force, managed by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and who have already participated in emergencies and security crises in the Canary Islands.
The contribution of resources to the fire prevention and fight device by the Government of the Canary Islands amounts to 242 troops, 15 fire trucks and six multifunctional helicopters from the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES).
To these last ones we must add two helicopters from the Forest Fire Intervention and Reinforcement Teams (EIRIF), which will be contracted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning, with the objective that the EIRIF have air resources own for their transport, and also for extinction and support.
The five cabildos as a whole adds 952 troops, 121 vehicles and four helicopters to the campaign, while the list of troops from the Government of Spain supposes 207 troops, 24 fire-engine vehicles and six aerial means.
DRONE UNITS
As in 2022, this year there are drone units for the prevention and fight against forest fires, belonging to the Canarian Executive, both the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) and the EIRIF, of the UME, dependent on the Ministry Defense, the CNP, the Civil Guard and the councils themselves.
Julio Pérez has stressed that the recent fires in La Caldera (La Palma) and Teide have highlighted the importance of transport capacity and the availability of aerial means, as well as the increase in their efficiency, thanks to the precision provided by thermal cameras and drones.
Likewise, it has highlighted the improvement of the means of geolocation of people through their mobile phones, increasing the safety of those involved in the extinction and other equipment.
In times of high danger, the Canary Islands forest fire operations will remain deployed and will always remain on alert, and the limiting and prohibitive measures established in the corresponding decrees on matters of Forest Fire Prevention, and Civil Protection and Emergency Attention will be applied. by forest fires.
