The wildfires that have swept across Albania have spread to the north of the country. The EU has been providing the country with resources needed to fight the fires.
advertisementAlbanian authorities are entering their third week of fighting fires that are raging across the country. The fires are mainly in southern Albania, but have spread to the north. Three new fires have been reported in the northeastern Diver district, and another fire is also burning in central Albania’s Elbasan district.
Earlier last week, Albania’s Interior Minister Taulant Bala confirmed that the government had asked the European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) for help. He said the remote mountainous region was unreachable by emergency services and the team was using only one Cougar helicopter.
As a member of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism since 2022, Albania can receive assistance from other countries in the event of a disaster. In response to the ongoing wildfires in the country, several Canadair aircraft have arrived from neighboring Greece to help fight the blazes.
According to the Supreme Audit Office, Albania’s firefighting fleet is old and poorly maintained. The report also shows that the Defense Ministry has four helicopters for emergency use, but only one is in service, as the other helicopters failed safety tests and were rejected.
Drones are not used to directly fight fires, but according to Fire Chief Arben Kara, police can use the Bayraktar drone to spot and assess fire hotspots from above. This, he said, has helped them a lot in developing an effective plan to fight the fires.
Albania is prone to forest fires during the summer due to its high temperatures and geographical features, with an average of 10,000 hectares of land burning each year.
Additional Sources • Euronews Albania
