Project no. Fp6-018505 Project Acronym fire paradox

4.5.5Means and personnel

1. 
   MATERIAL AND HUMAN MEANS:
   

• 
  Central Government means:
  

The UMMT’s are four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with an automatic weather station, radio communications equipment and a picture reception unit from the ACO; they are operative in several regions. The helicopters are national government property and are operated by the Civil Guard. The airplanes have nationwide coverage and are equipped with digital photograph transmission equipment through GPRS mobile telephony and continuous video (visible and infrared) by means of microwaves.

The data presented here is the result of an analysis of the answers to the questionnaire sent to the 17 Autonomous Regions, and in most cases they are checked against news items and press notes related to the issue in order to bring them up to date with the present 2007 summer campaign.

The findings show that in Spain some 1000 fire prevention surveillance posts are installed; Andalusia, with 225, has the highest number. Next come Castile and León, with 174, and Castile-La Mancha with 144 (see Table 10).

Andalusia is also the region with most surveillance patrols, 83. However, Catalonia occupies first place if we add into our calculation the Province of Barcelona (Catalonia) Complementary Surveillance Plan and its 126 security patrols overseeing a total area of 440,000 ha. We must also remember the 75 military units patrolling the Galicia woodlands during this campaign.

With regard to air surveillance, the disparity between Autonomous Regions is more pronounced, although the means employed are usually planes and/or light helicopters in all cases. The smaller regions such as La Rioja, Cantabria, the Basque Country or the Canaries Islands do not employ these means for this purpose, although the Balearic Islands, the smallest region of all, has 7 air surveillance routes (see Figure 25).

Table 10 - List of means and personnel of each autonomous region and of the national government assigned to traditional detection systems and technological developments at their disposal. 2007 Campaign

** Number of patrols (in italics) and personnel (between brackets);

*** Number of aircrafts (in italics) and personnel (between brackets);
Source: Replies to Fire Paradox questionnaire & digital press articles and Wildfire Autonomic Plans.
Table 11 - List of means and personnel of each autonomous region and of the national government assigned to non-traditional detection systems and other technological developments. 2007 Campaign

The Autonomous Region with most helicopters with flying time devoted to surveillance and detection of fires is Castile-La Mancha with 10, although they are only used on very specific occasions. Extremadura and Aragón are next with 8. In Aragón in 2006, some of the aircraft spent up to 20% of their flying time on these missions.

In contrast, few Autonomous Regions have fire detection systems that operate with ground-based infrared cameras. The majority of those that have this device are using it in experimental pilot schemes, except for Andalusia, whose surveillance network - the BOSQUE system mentioned above - with 17 posts operational 24 hours a day between July and October, covers a surface area of some 125,000 hectares, which are of great ecological quality (see Table 11).

2. 
   MECHANISM FOR DEPLOYMENT OF MEANS:
   

Generally speaking, the deployment of Autonomous Regions’ means in the fight against forest fires, among which detection and surveillance means are noteworthy, occurs from June to October, in the period called "fire campaign", and more specifically in the high risk period for fires. Depending on the year, this period may be longer or shorter. The "winter-spring campaign" is also a characteristic feature of the situation in Spain; this is mainly localised in the northern third of the country. At certain periods, such as Easter or Christmas, when the risk also increases, a support operational contingent may be formed.

There are different ways of deploying means in Spain, depending on the different Autonomous Regions; the latter try to optimise means, bearing in mind the weather conditions, the zoning of the territory according to the hazard and the hours of daytime.

• 
  Deployment depending on danger periods:
  

Table 12 - Forest fire danger periods determined in the different Autonomous Regions for 2007

The duration of each phase and the means associated with each one are established provisionally and may be modified depending on existing risk.

• 
  Deployment depending on daily danger:
  

The Valencian Community (see Figure 30) or Catalonia (Plan ALFA) are the regions that employ this daily index to set the deployment of means for their territory in order to optimise resources by categorising the index into three levels of danger and by defining the mobilisation of resources for each one.

Figure 30 - Schema of mobilisation of means in detection and surveillance tasks in the Valencia Autonomous Region

• 
  Activation timetable:
  

There are regions whose surveillance posts vary their timetable according to the hours of daylight, such as Aragón; others, like Andalusia, whose network is divided into two groups according to the importance of the location of the post, are active 24 hours a day and others during daylight hours; other, like Extremadura, with a split timetable during the high-risk period; and others in which all posts are active with a set timetable, such as Murcia.

With regard to mobile ground surveillance, units usually patrol during the times of maximum danger, completing an 8-hour shift between 11 and 19 h. There are also nighttime patrols, or throughout the whole day, as in Galicia.

Flying times devoted to detection and surveillance may be set by the corresponding Operations Centre. They are normally scheduled between 13 and 19 h. The Valencian Community schedules one or two hours flying daily, depending on the fire risk and always after electrical storms occur.