Firefighting saves the nature and the climate
The fire disasters in East Australia, in Brazil and even in other parts of the world are not only just triggered by a period of hot summer seasons – they are a direct result of the global warming. If one believe in the statements that the human civilization is not the originator of this situation or not – something is happening. The result is that thousands of acres of woods, bushes etc. have been burned down. The forests may recover themselfs, if the would have enough time. But the next fire season is coming and the sparsely growing green in the burned areas will be destroyed again.
We have no chance to protect the forests from lightnig strikes or other natural causes for fires. But we can prevent that humans are the arsonists. No open fire, no cigarette or any other careless behaviour. Also we can fight against criminals, who uses fires for their own business objectives or set fires just for fun.
Arial firefighting is an important part of the actions against wildfires. Just aircraft can react as fast as required and can transport a large amount of fire retardants into the flames. This does not mean, that any other way to fight fires is wrong – quite contrary to this the complete force is a team. Ground units block the fire, create firebreaks and extinguish any remains of the fires ot prevent a reinflammation. The helicopters assist this by a selective preicize water bombing and the fixed wing forces extinguis larger areas in short time. Even in rough terrains this mixture of forces is essential.
