Belgium will soon have its own firefighting planes to extinguish major fires. This is a first for the country: in the past, it has relied on France, the army and the police for large-scale aerial firefighting operations.
The first firefighting aircraft can take off from the small regional airport of Zwartberg (Genk, in the province of Limburg) by the beginning of next month at the latest, VRT NWS reported. A second aircraft will follow a month later. Both are AT-802 Fire Boss aircraft from Cargolux, one of the world's largest cargo carriers.
Once operational, the firefighting planes could be in the air within 12 minutes in the event of a major fire and can be deployed all over the country, as the radius of action is roughly 600 km. This means Belgium is no longer reliant on neighbouring France or the army and police, who used to hang fire extinguishing bags under helicopters, in the case of such an emergency.
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