Are we really prepared for a firestorm?
In the past 20 years, despite the best of climate change denial, one thing is very clear: The UK is getting hotter, drier, and more unstable in our weather patterns.
In rural areas, you see and hear first hand of the impact; Farmers struggling with poor crops, water shortages (or too much!) and in the past few years, wherever there are trees, shrubs, fields and undergrowth, the word everyone starts dreading is: Fire
And it is a special type of fear, as much of it is simply totally out of everyone’s control. You can do everything right on your land to reduce fire risk, but one cigarette butt thrown out of a passing car, someone parking a car with a hot exhaust on dry grass by the side of the road, a discarded bottle, The list is endless, but one thing is certain, once lit, it spreads extremely fast.
I have personally seen a discarded butt burn 20 feet square of grass in seconds, and we only just got it out as we had a lot of people on hand to beat, and grab water, but that was a cold fire, which is much easier to stop than an established inferno.
I have also seen a faulty 11,000v cable blow into two, fall to the ground, and start a fire, that no one could even tackle, as to direct water, foam, or even dry powder could lead to instant death.
And of course, most of the time, no one will be there in those first critical few seconds, meaning the reality is, nearly all incidents will have serious consequences, stretching local fire fighting resources to the limit instantly.
On other countries, this is well experienced, and when a lot starts burning in inaccessible areas, the only effective solution is using aircraft.
And they had some real luck in that. Post WW2, a huge number of very cheap surplus bomber aircraft were available, and many found second lives as fire bombers. And of course, there were heaps of veteran pilots willing to risk all. It became a dedicated industry, and community.
The best firefighting machine is the flying boat, as it can land on water, scooping up cargo with no outside help, and get back out there, but few ex WW2 aircraft were well suited to this.
As it became clear in the 1960s that ex WW2 aircraft would eventually dry up, in Canada, the firm Canadair decided to create a clean sheet design, the CL-215 ‘Scooper’
Between 1967 and 1990 over 125 were produced. They were vastly more expensive than surplus military aircraft, but far more effective, in 1993 a new turboprop variant, the CL-415 was launched, and 95 have been built so far.
It is fair to say these aircraft are very highly sought after now, with literally no aircraft actually ‘surplus’ to anyone’s requirements.
The WW2 Fire Bombers suffered a noble, but indignant end, when one broke into two midair in the 1990s. They were quickly grounded, and sent to museums, with the postwar C-130 Hercules filling some of the gap until one also broke apart.
Since then, US firefighting has seen a chaotic mix of different aircraft including converted wide body airliners. This mix of machinery from private contractors state by state, is ad hoc, and in reality waiting for the next accident to happen.
In Europe, the EU has decided a different approach, and is trying to standardise and federalise resources, to create a joint reaction force of tankers, based around the Canadair design.
In Europe already Croatia has 6 Canadairs, France 12, Greece 17, Italy 18, Portugal 3, Spain 18, and across Europe. But that is total airframes, not actually frontline ready aircraft, and to fill the serviceability gap, another 26 are on order, making the EU by far the Biggest operator of the type.
In addition to this, the German government is modifying some of its A400M transport aircraft fleet into multi role machines that can also drop water.
And how many do the UK own? 10? 6? 2? Well, the answer is sadly Zero. Not a single Canadair, in fact not a single dedicated firefighting aircraft is owned by the UK government.
And when the dry times come, we are not ready. Helicopters only have a tiny capacity, and Europe’s fleet of fire bombers is for them alone.
Remember these aircraft are a very scarce resource. They have limited airframe hours, they need endless maintenance, downtime, and have a hard life. Also they are lost to crashes, as their work is dangerous.
The concept of a combined EU defence force, was always sneered upon by nationalists, but now, with the war in Ukraine, and needs for civil fire and rescue defence growing exponentially, it has been a star in the EU’s idea box, it actually works, and benefits real people on the ground when they need it. There is a long way to go, but the direction is spot on, and just common sense.
Without being part of this long term teamwork, we just have no easy answers.