Since yesterday, the armed forces have also been using one of their fixed-wing aircraft to fight the forest fire: the Pilatus PC-6 equipped with a thermal imaging camera (airborne infrared sensors).

It is intended to support the emergency services with aerial photographs. In doing so, aerial photos of the fire area are made in order to be able to pinpoint the hot spots. With the PC-6, hours of observation from the air are possible. At the moment, countless hot spots are still being tracked down and erased by the forces deployed. “The advantage of using the Pilatus PC-6 is that the images can be transmitted directly from the air to the operations center. This enables the emergency services to quickly identify the embers and to extinguish them precisely, ”said Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner.

The armed forces have been in constant action against the forest fire in the Rax area for days: a total of two Black Hawks, two Augusta Bell 212s, an Alouette 3 and, from today, the Pilatus PC-6 of the army, together with helicopters from the Ministry of the Interior and a helicopter Slovakia (a civil Mi17 helicopter), two fire-fighting aircraft from Italy (Canadair), two helicopters of the German Bundeswehr (Sikorsky CH53) and a civil helicopter (Knaus), the emergency services fighting the major fire.