Aerial resources shifting north as industry calls for more investment in aircraft across Europe

As Europe and North America get an early taste of wildfire season 2026, the annual south to north migration of aerial firefighting resources is well underway amid European industry calls for more investment in aircraft.

Australia’s McDermott Aviation has started to shift its aerial firefighting fleet to Greece, marking the company’s seventh consecutive year supporting Greek authorities.

A total of 15 helicopters – including 11 Bell 214ST “Super Transporter” aircraft and four Bell 214B “Big Lifter” helitaks – are being mobilised from Australia and the United States, with operations running through to the end of October 2026. At that point, the migration resumes, but in the other direction.

(Photo Credit - Matt Cotter)
Preparing to depart to Greece for wildfire season 2026, McDermott Aviation. (Photo Credit – Matt Cotter)
Preparing to depart to Greece for wildfire season 2026, McDermott Aviation.
Preparing to depart to Greece for wildfire season 2026, McDermott Aviation.

At peak deployment, 14 aircraft will be on contract at any one time, supported by approximately 100 specialist personnel rotating through Greece, alongside additional operational support teams based in Australia and working in partnership with local Greek providers.

Aircraft will be positioned across 11 bases, including key island locations and mainland sites from Araxos in the west to Alexandroupolis in the east, and from Ioannina in the north to Crete and Rhodes in the south.

The fleet will undertake aerial firefighting operations, including water bombing and the transport of ground crews, with additional capability to support evacuation, search and rescue, and broader disaster response activities.

Other aircraft fleets are also active: Coulson Aviation reports on its N561CG currently making the journey back to North America after completing its contract in Australia. Here’s a nice photo in Pago Pago, Samoa at sunset.

A report commissioned by Avincis – the largest provider of aerial services across Europe – concludes that Europe is dangerously unprepared to tackle an increase in wildfires and must expand its aerial firefighting capabilities and investment.

Avincis brought together a group of academics, business leaders and professional firefighters to produce the report, released at the Aerial Fire Fighting Series: Global Conference and Exhibition, in Rome, Italy, in March. This follows a record-breaking wildfire season in 2025, which saw more than 1.03 million hectares burn across the EU – more than any year on record – with 81 per cent of the damage concentrated in just five countries.

The report – ‘Up in flames: The challenges of fighting wildfires from the air in a hotter Europe’ – says the size and age of Europe’s aerial firefighting fleet is the most acute operational vulnerability. The €600 million commitment by the European Parliament in 2024 to procure 22 DHC-515 aircraft – amphibious firefighting aircraft developed by De Havilland Canada – across six countries, with deliveries staggered between 2027 and 2030, is welcomed by the industry but is far from sufficient.             

The fleet shortage is compounded by a shortage of pilots and aircrew with difficult arrangements for foreign crews to assist.

Force multipliers – understanding the Forest Service’s Administratively Determined militia

By Michael Scott Hill

While being briefed pre-season on changes to the wildfire staff for U.S. federal resource agencies, I realized that many people don’t understand the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service and Department of Interior AD system.

We’re called ADs but few people realize the acronym stands for Administratively Determined; we’re the hidden resource of federal fire response, the steady backbone that helps to staff federal resource agencies on emergencies year after year. ADs are managed by local federal administrative units but deployed to assist on federal responses to nationwide emergency events.

This article is first published in Wildfire Magazine – read the full edition.

Background

In the early days of the Forest Service’s responses to local wildfires and other emergencies, employees were often required to wear two hats. One of the hats was a person’s primary job, such as being a ranger or forester; the other role was crew boss or fire engine operator.

The Forest Service was young and many of its remote offices were far from each other. At times, extra help would be hired and brought from nearby communities to assist with fire emergencies; the extra personnel were released from employment once the need passed.

This loose emergency-responder militia structure, with its ability to swell by accessing the Forest Service’s professional but non-fire workforce and then bring in contract people quickly afterwards, is unique. Having worked around other international fire agencies and the military in Afghanistan, my sense is that the flexible fire-response militia is a hidden strength for the Forest Service and its related federal agencies with wildfire response commitments.

Neither the US military nor other international fire agencies can deploy such an efficient, low-paid workforce, coiled and ready to respond at a moment’s notice, to the range of wildfire and national emergencies to which the Forest Service’s ADs respond and then quickly fade back into the civilian landscape. Indeed, even US National Guard members do not deploy as frequently as the federal ADs, nor do they face the range or volume of risks that ADs regularly experience.

Who are they?

The idea of an AD workforce that is deployed then quickly released when no longer needed is built on a labor force supply of retired, or separated, federal employees who maintain their federal response qualifications.

Many people believe all ADs are retired employees with full federal retirement benefits; some ADs fit that description. However, others who became ADs had left their federal employment for various reasons then began working as ADs, making annual salaries of only tens of thousands of dollars, with no retirement or other benefits from the Forest Service or its sister federal agencies, while being sent to the front lines of federal emergencies more often than most US military units.

I have been in the AD ranks for years and have helped to save countless communities and lives from wildfires; I’ve also served with US military forces overseas in war zones. I have seen how US military service members are honored for taking sometimes only a fraction of the risks experienced each summer by many ADs and other federal forces, who are on call for the Forest Service, risking their lives and potentially damaging their health during national emergencies.

The official guidance for land management agencies supports AD hiring to:

1. Cope with a sudden and unexpected emergency caused by a fire, or extreme fire potential, flood, storm, or any other all-hazard emergency that threatens damage to federally protected property, has the potential to cause loss of life, serious injury, public health risk, or damage to natural or cultural resources unless brought under immediate control.

2. Provide emergency assistance to states under formalized agreements.

3. Meet mission assignments issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

How are ADs used?

ADs fill in seamlessly at the side of federal and state employees on the front line of federal disaster responses. ADs staff many federal incident management teams organized to provide leadership in emergency response. ADs manage firefighting crews, conduct federal aviation operations, and fill in elsewhere, often having advanced skills and qualifications.

ADs face the flames and other dangers including floodwaters, often right next to the active federal employees but without the security net of retirement benefits, job protections or decent annual salaries, while cumulative health damage takes its toll on the future quality of our lives.

Why do we do it?

Being an AD has its benefits. As temporary on-call federal employees, ADs can feel part of the federal emergency response force while still going about our normal lives and finding regular employment. We are free to take assignments for which we are available, and we have the freedom to decline those for which we are not. We can use and hone skills and qualifications developed during lengthy careers in various aspects of federal emergency response. Many ADs enjoy the comradery of the work, the travel it offers, and the satisfaction of assisting during emergency responses.

Challenges

The Forest Service’s AD world has experienced challenges. In 2017, there was a push at the national level to terminate the ADs hired locally by USFS units, seemingly due to cultural changes as a new generation of management began to fill gaps left by Baby Boomer retirements. In response to this 2017 push, the USFS relationship with its ADs became formalized.

Post 2017, as ADs were a federally deployed national resource, some local AD managers began to view as unnecessary the extra work it took manage the ADs.

In some cases, local AD managers began to prune their AD ranks, even going outside federal polity to do so. As there is no mechanism for ADs to file complaints against their full-time federal managers, many ADs walked away. Because there is minimal employment protection for ADs, their sponsorship can easily be terminated, even after years of service.

During this era, policy was enacted requiring ADs to live in the same geographic location where they were sponsored by an AD unit. The policy, combined with the new management culture, resulted in the loss of many experienced ADs.

In some cases, managers have seemingly put personal projects ahead of long-practiced policy. One example was someone who wanted to make the fire ground safer and championed a formalized medical screening process for ADs to ensure they were fit enough to go to the firelines. In theory this was a great idea that could save lives. However, not all ADs have health insurance, and the screening policy resulted in the loss of many more good ADs.

Where from here?

There is talk within the Forest Service about reorganizations and staffing cuts. My purpose for writing this piece is to ensure ADs are not forgotten as the federal resource agency’s hidden force multipliers. ADs, with their knowledge and federal emergency qualifications, are and have long been a valuable part of the federal work force. I would argue that if the AD role remains during any reorganization of the US federal wildfire efforts, the framework of AD management in place since 2017 should be reviewed.

In my opinion, ADs should be offered some buffer as temporary federal employees so they can activate the federal grievance system if necessary. I also believe the geographic location hiring rule for ADs should be discarded, as ADs are used by the Forest Service at the national level.

Why does it matter?

Wildfire professionals who have given their lives to emergency response work – often at great personal cost – deserve respect, fairness, and procedural integrity. When experienced ADs can be dismissed with no avenue for review, it sends a message that dedication and expertise count for nothing. In an updated AD program that serves our national goals, former ADs who have been removed from the program should be able to have their AD sponsorships reviewed and renewed at a national level, as we are national resources.

In return for their call-when-needed roles, ADs should be provided pay, protections and allowances equal to the risks they undertake. Thus, we should consider the simplest solution – to make the federal AD program national, based under one umbrella, or convert the program from individual ADs into a group of federal contractors who are employed by private companies. Then all the above concerns can be covered within the contract.

The AD system is and has always been of tremendous value to the whole of the Forest Service and related agencies. It’s time this loyal workforce is better understood, recognized and valued.

Michael Hill, a longtime member of the Administratively Determined workforce of the United States federal fire responders and one of Wildfire magazine’s Associate Editors, manages a Chinook in California.

Wildfire Commission seeks ideas for science, money, workforce

Got a priority or idea when it comes to the work that firefighters and fire managers do, the science that informs the work, or the money and processes that pay for it all? The Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission is looking for your recommendations.

The three topics open from March 2-22 are gathering input for commission recommendations on Science, Data and Technology; Appropriations; and Workforce.

The commission’s “Opportunities for Engagement” page explains the process, with eight recommendation topics already recruited and concluded.

Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission header 2023-Feb
Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission

This month marks the final stage of the engagement process as the commission and its committees work to meet a Fall 2023 timeline for a report to the U.S. Congress, as stipulated in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The legislation created the commission, which is charged with developing two reports to Congress – one on aerial firefighting released in February and another scheduled for release in Fall 2023 – to collectively develop “a comprehensive set of recommendations to address the nation’s wildfire crisis,” as noted in a Department of Interior media release.

Grassroots WIldland Firefighters shared a call for recommendations in their  Stakeholder Update: “Currently the commission is taking on issues associated with OUR WORKFORCE. Such issues include recommendations related to compensation, recruitment and retention, staffing structures, and meeting the challenge of meeting workforce capacity (including support structures such as housing, health, and wellbeing).”

And they offered both encouragement and coaching: “It doesn’t matter if you have a small observation to share or a large well-researched manifesto ready for daylight. This is our time to be heard by the whole Commission. We urge you to PLEASE provide your submissions and make sure your colleagues do the same.”

The commission survey form reminds respondents to focus on issues and processes may be resolved by way of legislative process under the purview of Congress. And they too offer encouragement: “If you have multiple recommendations, please complete the form as many times as needed.”

Link to Submit Recommendation

Fire politics (Groundhog Day edition)

Still from Groundhog Day (1993), with Bill Murray (weatherman Phil) and Phil (the Groundhog).
Still from Groundhog Day (1993), with Bill Murray (weatherman Phil) and Phil the groundhog.

The IMDB description of the 1993 film Groundhog Day offers this hope for escaping the whirlpool: “A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day, and the day keeps repeating until he gets it right.”

Thirty years of film history later, in our wildfire world we may seem stuck like weatherman Phil, repeating the day (and our fire processes) until we get it right. Yet a range of recent releases may hint of some key transitions.

If you have a bit of time (as did weatherman Phil), you might explore the documents put in play. The most concise might be the Wildfire Emergency Act of 2023 – you can track it at https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/s188 – but for now the full text is at sponsor Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s site.

The legislation introduced on the last day of January 2023 builds from the same-named act of 2021 (should they have just waited for Groundhog Day?), which didn’t progress in 2021, but the emergency frame and elements have reappeared in this new bill. The legislation has bipartisan support, with Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines joining three Democrats – sponsor Feinstein and cosponsoring senators Alex Padilla of California and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

While the bill is framed as a response to the wildfire and climate emergency, many of the proposals reflect the rise of  “cohesive strategy” as a core vision for fire initiatives. As Wyden said, “To address the threat of catastrophic wildfires in the West an all-of-the-above approach is needed. This means making essential upgrades to keep the lights on when disaster strikes and giving communities the firefighting workforce and latest technology required to get fires under control. Our bill also prioritizes mitigation work now to prevent wildfires from turning into the megafires that destroy lives and property. The climate crisis is here, and the West needs more support.”

Feinstein affirms the all-hands-on-deck approach. “Every level of government and the private sector must be involved in this fight, and this bill will go a long way toward helping us prepare for a hotter, drier future.”

What a region-specific and bottom-to-top bill might actually produce, if a lot of committee meetings, votes, and budget-wrangling welds it into law, may include both specified and unspecified funds to accomplish key fireshed transitions. The news release offers a synthesis – with proposed commitments to landscape-scale forest restoration, community-level resilience, and added emphasis and new initiatives on applied sensing technology and workforce development.

A change of note: the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) is to be consulted on one or more Prescribed Fire Training Centers in any state entirely located west of the 100th meridian. This will offer a key expansion and a fire-regime diversification of the essential work by the single national center in Florida, but equally noteworthy is that JFSP still exists and may play a key role in this initiative – since not so long ago folks had to argue to keep JFSP funded.

What may be missing are elements of national workforce change and a lack of “moonshot” glitter in both the funding and unspecified tech initiatives. But what’s here promises to expand recent initiatives to more stakeholders. If adopted, we might see at least one prescribed fire training center identified within a year and funding for wildfire and forest-restoration training centers West-wide (with grants to states, academic institutions, and professional organizations that may speed the rollout). Additionally, up to 20 landscapes of 100,000 acres will use $250 million “to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration and wildfire resilience projects.”  That’s $125 an acre for some 2 million acres, which promises a lot of work, commensurate with “the true cost of fire” (reported by Bill Gabbert in 2020), which quotes Prof. Ernesto Alvarado: “I think we should concentrate more on the human losses.” These funds will align with $50 million for community grants and a $13,000 per low-income household for wildfire-hardening retrofits.

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The challenges to the wildfire workforce are increasing due in no small part to fire regime shifts that prompted the Wildfire Emergency Act, yet the pace of federal administrative change may not be ramping as fast as the fires. Which is where our political change is at now – fed by the concerns from public and legislators and the push by firefighter advocates like the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters (GRWFF) and the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFF).

This is the background to two recent letters seeking to amp up and wisen up the changes. One, sent January 18 from a bipartisan group of seven western senators to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), seeks clarification and correction to federal housing guidelines that undercut firefighter recruitment and retention. Such as: if your roommate leaves (not something you can usually manage), you pay their part of the rent. support to correct housing inequities. As well as changes to bunkhouse and remote-housing formulas for determining rent. In their request for a briefing on OMB Circular A-45R, the senators observe that “Federal wildland firefighters have a difficult and dangerous job, and it is the federal government’s responsibility to support them in this work.”

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The second letter, from GRWFF and NFFF to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), takes a broader focus and goes farther — but essentially, even existentially – into the deep regarding the November 2022 GAO report, “Wildland Fire: Barriers to Recruitment and Retention of Federal Wildland Firefighters,” that identified some but not all of the barriers and reforms identified by groups like the GRWFF and NFFF.

There’s much in the letter that will shape the dialogues this coming year (which we’ll be following), but as good a place to start now is the direct request to the GAO toward the letter’s close:
“Grassroots Wildland Firefighters and NFFE deeply appreciate the GAO’s initial report. Considering its blind spots, however, we respectfully request a second investigation into these barriers, and a second report, one that incorporates the input of a significant number of current and former wildland firefighters – and prioritizes the wisdom of those who occupy marginalized identities.”

Among many questions and suggestions regarding pay, housing, equity, work-life balance, retirement (covering most of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, many of which aren’t supported currently), the letter highlights that “the elephant in the room is safety and health – what our firefighters risk every day. Although federal wildland firefighters are at higher risks of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, PTSD and traumatic injuries, these go undiscussed in the GAO’s report. The federal government does not recognize a correlation between environmental exposures such as wildfire smoke and the incidence of cancers or cardiovascular diseases. More than two dozen firefighters died in the line of duty in 2022 fighting wildfires. These risks are unaccounted for when determining pay for firefighters. Prospective recruits and veteran firefighters balk at the low pay for a job that may injure or kill them and will take years off their lives. Although federal wildland firefighters can spend over 1,000 hours every fire season exposed to these hazards, no formal education program exists on either the dangerous consequences or mitigation strategies for employees.”

For additional details, see the January 25 letter and the set of reforms proposed by Grassroots Wildland Firefighters and NFFF in 2022.

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For the record, Punxsutawney Phil reportedly saw his shadow today and his managers are predicting six more weeks of winter. To my knowledge, few fire managers base their spring prescribed fire plans on whether Phil sees his shadow. Yet we in the fire profession can claim a key functional connection: this rodent-centric celebration has roots in such say-goodbye-to-winter traditions as Candlemas (and its hedgehog) and the Irish/Celtic celebration of St. (née goddess) Brigid, all of which are celebrated with bonfires and candles. So light a fire to the passing of winter, but do note that yesterday’s Fire Outlook predicts a mellower beginning to fire season, which may at least mean we’re not as likely to see the shadows of recent active early fire seasons.