Throughout the wildfire season, the Wildfire Support Team is an additional asset of the UCPM, with a wide range of activities during the summer period. Based at the ERCC, the Wildfire Support Team contributes to operational awareness and ongoing wildfire operations, and takes an active part in wildfire reporting. We met some of the experts currently bringing their skills and knowledge to the Team.
The Wildfire Support Team, is active from 19 June to 15 September, brings a wealth of wildfire expertise from across UCPM countries. National experts are nominated by UCPM member and participating states to join the Wildfire Support Team at the ERCC for either a week or two weeks at a time, on a rotating basis.
Over the wildfire season, 16 experts from different UCPM member and participating states will be part of the team, as well as six experts from ARISTOTLE. Completing the team is a duty officer from the ERCC’s Forest Fire working group.
The Wildfire Support Team primarily monitors the wildfire situation in Europe and shares the individual knowledge and expertise, especially when there are deployments from the European Civil Protection Pool or of rescEU assets. Anticipation is key: they also work on the availability of firefighting assets and identifying opportunities for them to be deployed when there is significant fires or request for assistance.
Sien Vanlommel, one of the ERCC duty officers and part of the internal Forest Fires working group, says of the Wildfire Support Team: “The knowledge that the national experts and the ARISTOTLE scientists bring means that we can have a more complete picture of fire risk and fire behaviour.”
“Having such situational awareness is key, especially for forest fires where a fast response is often crucial. Our role in the team is also to make the natural connection to the procedures and give a common look to products. Personally, I feel privileged to be part of the Wildfire Support Team, as I am learning a lot from my colleagues,” she adds.
I come from academic research, it's been very interesting to see the relationship between the assessment that we do at the academic level and then what really happens on the ground.
Renārs Žeļezkins is from the State Fire and Rescue service of Latvia. When we caught up with him his two-week placement with the Wildfire Support Team had just begun: “I’m expecting to gain more experience from other colleagues; it's my first time in Brussels and to the ERCC. It's only day two but already there’s been a lot of information for me, that's good because I’m here to learn. Knowledge like this, it’s so useful for me personally and for the team home in Latvia.”
As part of their placement in the Wildfire Support Team, experts present their own work, a valuable knowledge-sharing exercise within ECHO. When we visited, Mafalda Silva from ARISTOTLE and Juan Caamaño Azcarate from the Pau Costa Foundation were presenting their work; a blend of the academic and the operational.
Mafalda Silva, from Portugal, works for the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) and is part of ARISTOTLE’s Forest Fire Hazard support team. Explaining ARISTOTLE’s short-range forecasting on wildfire risk, she highlighted the added value of layering expert assessment that complements what’s available on the online platform.
Academic input can also help ‘avoid the traps’: the same Fire Weather Index in different countries can mean very different outcomes based on issues like the amount and type of land cover.
Mafalda has enjoyed seeing the interface between academic work and operational forest firefighting. She says: “Because I come from academic research, it's been very interesting to see the relationship between the assessment that we do at the academic level and then what really happens on the ground. I'm learning a lot about the procedures, and the relationships and the connections between the knowledge and the practice.”
“It's all about personal connections and experience, I’ve made new connections on the operational side and have a new perspective on fire danger assessment.”
It's about transferring knowledge. Building networks is key.
Juan Caamaño Azcarate is a forestry engineer and forest fire specialist from Spain. He shared his knowledge of fire analysis: the volatile combination between fuel availability, topography and weather conditions that drives wildfires but also helps us to study and understand them. For him, wildfire prevention through better land management is what counts.
Juan believes that we can harness the knowledge that we have for better wildfire prevention response: “We have to learn to live with fire. Speaking about exchanging experience and that knowledge, we produce knowledge in places where the emergencies take place, for example in southern European countries we have invested a lot to understand forest fires. But then we don’t have the same focus on snowstorms that they do in the northern European countries. It's about transferring knowledge. That's why building networks is key.”
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