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The government delegate visits the detachment of fire-extinguishing planes at the Base of Zaragoza

22/07/2025

Fernando Beltrán has met with members of the crews and the head of the 43rd Group, Colonel Carlos Gómez, who thanked them for their work and highlighted “their precision” in the interventions The Ministry of Defense has been collaborating for more than 50 years in the prevention, fight and extinguishment of forest fires

Zaragoza.- The government delegate in Aragón, Fernando Beltrán, visited this morning the detachment of the 43rd Air and Space Army Group that, every year, is deployed in the Zaragoza Air Base to participate in the summer campaign against forest fires. He has met with members of the crews and with the person responsible for it, Colonel Carlos Gómez, of whom he has known the latest developments related to the material and services they provide.

Beltrán, as he did a few months ago on the visit to the Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigade (BRIF) of Daroca, under the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO), has thanked its members, on behalf of the citizens, for the work they do and the “security that provides managers of an emergency like a forest fire with troops and instruments that work like a precision clock”.

The Ministry of Defense has been actively involved for more than 50 years in the prevention, fight and extinguishment of forest fires, through the full involvement of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and the 43rd Air and Space Army Group. The campaign to fight forest fires is operational from June 1 to October 30.

The Group 43 has 14 fire-extinguishing aircraft, ten of the latest model CL-215T and four CL-415 distributed in 7 detachments in a staggered manner: Zaragoza, Pollensa (Mallorca), Santiago de Compostela, Salamanca, Malaga, Badajoz and Torrejón de Ardoz.

The UME has deployed a total of 1,400 military personnel in direct intervention tasks distributed in its five Intervention Battalions (Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Zaragoza and León) and the two units located in the Canary Islands. Added to these troops are the logistical, operational and command and control support provided by various units of the UME, which extends the total device to about 3,000 people. It also has more than 55 drones of different classes for different missions.

Improvements and reinforcements

Within this collaboration between ministries to fight forest fires, MITECO has acquired seven amphibious aircraft of the new DHC 515, with a total investment of 375 million, which also includes the updating of the current CL-415. The new aircraft will represent a qualitative leap in extinction capacity, moving from the current water capacity, 6,000 liters, to 7,000 liters, which considerably improves the effectiveness of the interventions.

For the current summer campaign, MITECO has a reinforced device composed of 53 aerial vehicles, 10 Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (BRIF), 4 Integrated Forest Fire Prevention Teams (EPRIF) and 7 Mobile Analysis and Planning Units (UMAP).

In addition, we must add the permanent contingent that has been operational during the winter and that is made up of 11 air mediums, 5 helitransport brigades and 3 analysis units.

In parallel, 61 million euros of the Recovery Plan have been allocated to the improvement of infrastructures in the 10 BRIF bases, some of them new construction such as that of Daroca, which will allow to optimize the facilities and considerably improve the working conditions of the extinguishing personnel.

The BRIF acts in 70% of the large fires and the air media is activated in 85% of these.