As (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The Mayor of As criticizes current wildfire detection efforts, saying fire towers closing at 7 p.m. is inadequate amid rising forest fire risks and delayed alerts.
Following last week’s massive heathland fire on As, Belgium, and Maasmechelen’s property, he makes this statement. Seurs supports the employment of innovative methods, including thermal cameras, and feels that the fire towers in Hoge Kempen National Park should have more personnel on duty for longer periods of time.
The Mechelse Heide in the Hoge Kempen National Park was visited today by Limburg Governor Jos Lantmeeters and Federal Climate Minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés). There was a blaze in the area last Thursday night.
In order to evaluate the damage on the ground and express gratitude to the fire department for their efforts, the minister visited the scene.
The minister stresses that this incident demonstrates once more the need and necessity of a systematic, coordinated approach.
“This will happen more often in the coming years. The climate is changing faster than our approach. If we do not invest in prevention, spatial planning and adapted fire fighting, we will pay the price in biodiversity, air quality and safety,”
Says Crucke.
Therefore, the minister supports improved spatial planning that takes into account natural buffers, greater collaboration, and bolstering the ability and resources of emergency services in high-risk areas.
The mayor of As, Tom Seurs, claims that he made it quite evident during that visit that there is an issue with the detection of forest fires.
“When a fire breaks out in a fire area, we fail to recognize it promptly enough. We’ll need to put some effort into that.”
For instance, the National Park’s fire towers are currently staffed from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“That seems far too little to me,”
Says Seurs.
“The fire now started after 8 p.m. and there were several smaller fires earlier that started after 8 p.m.
I think we as a government need to take this more seriously. The fire risk will only increase due to the increasingly longer periods of drought, especially in the heathlands,”
He says.
“So I wonder if we can use new techniques to detect fires.”
This way you can equip the fire towers with new possibilities, such as thermal cameras. For example, I saw the fire brigade working with drones with heat detection during the heath fire.”
For instance, the Kalmthoutse Heide fire tower now has artificial intelligence-enabled cameras.
Why does the Mayor of As believe fire towers should be manned longer?
Since the existing practice of merely manning fire towers until 7 p.m. is insufficient for efficient wildfire detection and prevention, Mayor Van As feels that fire towers should be manned for a longer period of time.
Extending the monitoring period will enhance early detection skills and enable faster response to new fires, as fire dangers can continue into the evening.
This issue comes when wildfire risks are rising due to climate change and extended dry spells, and preserving forests and towns requires increased attention after hours.
Van As thus supports extended staffing hours in order to improve protection against forest fires during periods of vulnerability.
