The Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, has presented the actions to prevent and fight forest fires for this summer that her department has launched. The Ministry of the Environment will have a total of 65 aircraft this year, distributed in 34 bases distributed among 27 provinces, to provide support to the autonomous communities in firefighting work. This figure represents an increase compared to those authorized at the beginning of the 2005 summer campaign, the year in which the means were also expanded compared to 2004.

In this operation, fourteen CL-215T amphibious aircraft with a capacity of 5,500 liters and five CL-215 amphibious aircraft also with a capacity of 5,500 liters are counted; six 3,100-liter amphibious aircraft; ten 3,100-liter cargo planes on the ground; four coordination and observation aircraft, one of them with instruments to carry out night observation work and transmission of information; six helicopters with a 4,500-liter tank; a 2,500-liter helicopter-bomber; two heavy transport helicopters with a 2,500-litre tank and eight medium-transport helicopters with a 1,500-litre tank and five medium-transport helicopters with a 1,200-litre tank.

Likewise, the department headed by Cristina Narbona has expanded the land resources, since this year there will be nine Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (BRIF) distributed throughout the territory, one more than in 2005. In addition, these brigades, heliborne units that are made up of highly specialized personnel, extend their period of operation to four months in summer.

To these means must be added the ten Mobile Meteorology and Transmission Support Units as an advanced command post that the Ministry will have. These are all-terrain vehicles equipped with an automatic weather station and instant communication equipment, which carry out support work for extinguishing tasks. When there are no fires, their task is focused on surveillance and study tasks.

In the field of prevention, the number of Comprehensive Prevention Teams (EPRIF) has been increased from 9 to 10 units in the 2005-2006 winter campaign, with the incorporation of a new team in eastern Asturias. The EPRIFs act in rural areas to prevent fires caused by uncontrolled burning of scrub and pastures and are incorporated into the extinguishing device on the days with the highest number of fires. The number of EPRIF will be increased to 12 for the 2006-2007 winter season.