Morocco to boost its aerial firefighting fleet

Morocco plans to add 3 Canadair CL 515 water bombing aircrafts to its firefighting fleet which counts so far five operational planes, Moroccan military news group FAR Maroc said.

Morocco is the only country in Africa which operates five Canadair aircrafts which have been currently deployed to extinguish fires in northern Morocco

The new Canadair-CL 515 planes are an upgraded version of the CL 415 fleet used by Morocco. The new planes can carry 7000 litres of water and have a better manoeuvring capacity thanks to their bigger engines.

Wildfires are common during the summer season in Morocco as is the case in the rest of the Mediterranean region. Blazes that broke out in the area of Chefchaouen over the weekend have been controlled as Morocco deployed land and air capabilities to prevent the fires from reaching inhabited areas.

Losses were limited to 1,100 hectares of forests after Canadair aircrafts kept throwing water in hard-to-reach mountains.

Meanwhile, more than 60,000 hectares of forests were ravaged by fires in Algeria, costing the lives of more than 90 people.

Morocco has offered to send two of its Canadair firefighters to Algiers but the proposal fell on deaf ears. Two Canadairs have been sent by France as the oil-rich country waits for more aircrafts to be freed by EU countries to come to the rescue.

Lacking risk management and governance, the regime in Algeria preferred to politicize the blazes blaming it on political opponents to shun responsibility for the lack of firefighting tools.