16 apr 2020

Babcock continues firefighting operations in Southern Europe

A CL 215 drops water onto a forest fire in Canada

Babcock has continued to provide aerial firefighting services in Southern Europe throughout the COVID19 pandemic. Our air crews and aircraft have flown over 150 missions since the start of the year in Spain and Italy, and remain at 100 per cent availability as we prepare for the start of peak firefighting season.

In Spain, our teams have fought 40 fires since February with operations mainly taking place in North Spain where fires are more common at this time of year.

In Italy, we have delivered 121 missions since the beginning of the year, with two big fires occurring over the Easter weekend. The first fire spread over 20 hectares in the upper Chiampo valley near Verona. And the second, on Easter Sunday, saw several outbreaks in the very inaccessible forests of Mount Mutria, between Molise and Campania in the south of Italy which were so severe that two Canadair firefighting aircraft were needed to tackle the blaze.

Babcock is committed to keeping our teams as safe as possible while they carry out these critical operations to protect our communities and, working with our customers, have designed and put in place specific COVID-19 protocols across our firefighting operations.