Two CTIF speakers at the Aerial Firefighting Europe Conference and Exhibition in Greece

CTIF´s Lieutenant Colonel Zisoula Ntasiou opened the conference on Tuesday morning, followed by Professor Dr. Johann Goldammer, Director, Global Fire Monitoring Center, Germany and the welcome address by Vassilis Kikilias, Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in Greece. 

The Aerial Firefighting Conference and Exhibition in Greece is a full two day event on october 17-18,  packed with interesting presentations from Greece, France, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal Germany, Canada, Australia and USA. 

There are also a number of interesting corporate presentations covering various technical aspects of forest firefighting. 

See the Full program here

During the morning session on Tuesday October 17,  Lieutenant Colonel Zisoula Ntasiou, Duty Officer Unit 2, National Coordination Center for Operations & Crisis Management, Hellenic Fire Service, Greece, will spoke on the topic of  Aerial Firefighting in Greece. 

 

Fire season 2023 was a long & never ending season for Greece.  The behaviour of the fires was extreme, we encountered mainly crown fires of Pinus halepensis, brutia, nigra and Quercus forests, mostly wind and plume-driven, with a high degree of fire line intensity, rate of spread, flame length, spotting activity, appearance of pyroCu, pyroCb, downdrafts and fire tornados.

EU has mobilized one of the largest ever European deployments of firefighters and aircraft in history.  The National Coordination Center for Operations and Crisis Management of the Hellenic Fire Service had to coordinate 94 Greek and 44 foreign aerial resources, from 15 countries around the world, that participated together in the battle for tackling the wildfires in Greece.

What happened in Greece this summer?  What were our lessons learned?  How those lessons learned can be useful in the future?  Are some of the key questinos that will be answered during this presentation.

On Thursday afternoon, CTIF President Milan Dubravac speaks on the topic of Forest Firefighting - Challenges for Future International Cooperation. 

CTIF is International Fire Services Association whose main objective is to exchange knowledge.  Main work & results of this Association is done in Commissions and working groups where experts from around the world deal with firefighting challenges.  In the last period, CTIF is mainly focused on the following topics which worldwide needs exchange of knowledge & experience:

•  New Technologies in Fire Service / •  Forest Fires / •  Firefighters Health / •  Future role of Fire Services worldwide due to climate changes, green transition & technological development

See the Full program here