Soon firefighting planes will be able to take off from Zwartberg Airfield near Genk in Limburg Province. This will be a first for Belgium. Previously, Belgian firefighters had to enlist the help of their French colleagues or use army or aircraft to drop water bags if they with to carry out an aerial extinguishing operation. A firefighting plane can be in the air just 12 minutes after being called to action.
The new firefighting plane is an AT-802 Fire Boss plane and is owned by Cargolux. It will be used to put out fires all over Belgium. The plane can land on water as well as on land. Wieger Ketellaper of Cargolux told VRT News that the plane can also collect water from canals, rivers or the sea while it is flying. It simply lands on the water and within 15 seconds its water 3,000 litre tank is full again.
The first Belgian firefighting plane will be privately-owned. Damien Dermaux of the Federal Interior Ministry says that as things stands Federal Police helicopters and large bags containing water from the Civil Protection Agency currently suffice to fulfill our aerial extinguishing needs. He added that there are European cooperation agreements regarding the tackling of wildfires.
Currently Cargolux doesn’t have permission to train pilots how to collect water from lakes, rivers and canals in Limburg. Instead, if will decamp to an airfield near to the French border while its pilots are trained.