The recent wildfire in the Cairngorms has reignited calls for Scotland to develop a permanent aerial firefighting capability, with questions being asked over whether specialist helicopters should be available to tackle major blazes.
At present, aerial firefighting operations rely on a small number of privately operated helicopters carrying underslung water buckets, with neither the Scottish nor UK governments maintaining dedicated aerial wildfire assets based in the UK.
The issue has come into sharp focus following the extensive wildfire in the Cairngorms National Park, where helicopters played an important role alongside hundreds of firefighters tackling the blaze across difficult terrain.
Scottish Greens rural affairs spokesperson Ariane Burgess has written to the First Minister urging the Scottish and UK governments to work together to establish a publicly available aerial firefighting capability for use during the wildfire season.
The party argues that relying on privately operated aircraft limits Scotland’s ability to respond quickly when large scale wildfires develop and says climate change is increasing both the frequency and intensity of extreme fire conditions.
Ariane Burgess said:
“The devastating fires in the Cairngorms have shown that Scotland cannot continue to rely on a patchwork of private operators and borrowed resources when wildfires are spreading rapidly across some of our most precious landscapes.
“We need a permanent, publicly available aerial firefighting capability based here in Scotland, with specialist aircraft and crews ready to respond during the wildfire season.
“Climate change is making extreme wildfire conditions more intense and more common, yet our firefighting resources have not kept pace with the scale of the threat.
“There is a vast cost from these wildfires, not just in terms of the huge financial impact but also the damage being done to our ecosystem and the huge risk that it creates for local people and the firefighters who have put their lives and long-term health on the line to protect us.
“The Scottish and UK governments must work together to ensure that we are not in this same position next year and that Scotland has the equipment and capacity needed to protect communities, wildlife and our natural environment.
“We cannot wait for the next major wildfire to expose the same gaps again.”
The Scottish Greens say last year’s Dava Moor and Carrbridge wildfire, along with the recent Cairngorms fire, demonstrate the need for a long term strategy that includes dedicated aerial resources.
The Scottish and UK governments have not announced any plans to establish a permanent fleet of specialist wildfire aircraft, but the latest calls are likely to add to the debate over how Scotland prepares for increasingly severe wildfire seasons in the years ahead.
