Castile and León has presented its largest firefighting deployment: 5,075 professionals, 35 aerial resources, and 160 million euros. Impressive figures, but they hide an uncomfortable reality. Every summer we need more resources because the countryside is abandoned and the forests are uncleaned. The deployment is spectacular, but the real battle doesn't start in June with helicopters, but in January with brush cutters and forest management.
Prevention: the technology that doesn't reach the forest 🔥
Forest management remains tied to last-century methods. While the firefighting operation modernizes with drones and satellites, prevention lacks digital tools to map risks or plan cleanups. Fire prediction systems based on artificial intelligence that analyze vegetation and weather exist, but their implementation in rural areas is scarce. The technology exists, but the will to apply it consistently is lacking, and not just when the forest is burning.
The helicopter: the lead actor in the political selfie 🚁
Every summer, the same ritual. A politician poses next to the helicopter, greets the firefighters, and promises more resources. The photo appears in every newspaper. Then, in January, when it's time to clean ditches and prune trees, there's no photo, no press conference, and budgets are forgotten. The helicopter is the lead actor in this annual theater: noisy, flashy, and always arriving when the fire has already been devouring the forest for hours. But hey, the photo looks nice.