Sabadell Airport hosted this Thursday the presentation of the 2026 forest fire fighting device, which faces the summer campaign with more personnel, a reinforced fleet, and 30 aerial resources. The operation incorporates 95 people for this summer, 10 trucks, 24 pick-up vans, three tractors with disc plows, and four brush-cutting robots.
The reinforcement comes after rains that have caused fine vegetation to grow, which has already dried quickly due to the winds of March and April. That light fuel coincides with a forecast of a classic forest campaign that, according to prevention services, could lead to episodes of thermal drought like those of 2003, 2009, or 2025.
Torreferrussa houses one of the ten bases of the prevention groups
Vallès Occidental concentrates one of the operational points of the deployment. In Torreferrussa, in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, is one of the ten bases of the Special Forest Fire Prevention Groups, which are part of the device presented in Sabadell.
In addition to summer personnel, Bombers de la Generalitat has incorporated 328 new staff members since 2024, now reaching a total of 2,883 professionals in the corps. The specific reinforcement personnel for the Forest Campaign has also increased this year, going from 465 to 475 staff members.
The fleet renewal includes vehicles with high penetration capacity in difficult-to-access terrain. The objective is to improve access to complicated forest areas in a campaign that may extend beyond the central summer months.
The 25 thermal drones expand night surveillance
The aerial device adds 30 resources, of which 28 are based in Catalonia. Among them are 10 water-bombing helicopters, six coordination helicopters, four rescue helicopters, and eight surveillance and attack planes.
Two Air Force seaplanes with a capacity of more than 3,500 liters are also added to this deployment. Also entering service are 25 drones with thermal cameras, which allow for the location of heat sources, the detection of invisible active points, and the refinement of decision-making during the night.
The heads of the operation will monitor a possible entry of the El Niño phenomenon due to its impact on the summer's evolution. If this meteorological pattern consolidates, temperatures could rise, and the risk of fire could remain until autumn.
Agents Rurals investigated 583 fires in twelve months
Prevention maintains a central weight in the campaign. The Cos d'Agents Rurals has carried out 32,757 preventive actions between June 2025 and May 2026, while the Pla Alfa continues to function as a basic control tool with five danger levels evaluated daily in all municipalities.
In the same period, agents have investigated 583 forest fires and nine out of ten had direct or indirect human origin. Of the total analyzed, 30% were attributed to negligence and 22% to accidents.
That distribution of causes places human intervention at the center of forest risk in Catalonia. The report presented this Thursday sets the preventive actions of the Cos d'Agents Rurals between June 2025 and May 2026 at 32,757.