Air Force helicopter combats fire in Xichu

A Mexican Air Force aircraft arrives in Xichu to combat the forest fire from the air in areas of difficult access

Xichu/The New York Times

A Mexican Air Force helicopter joined the actions to combat the forest fire in the mountainous area of ​​El Timbal. The M1-17 type aircraft has the capacity to transport a container with water to attack the fire at points that are inaccessible for combat brigades from the ground.

The aircraft operations will be coordinated through the National Forestry Commission, so the preparation and identification of the helipoint for the aircraft was previously done, as well as the recharging area of ​​the water reserve for the helibalde.

At the moment, the coordination activities established in the Operations Center by the State Coordination of Civil Protection, the National Forestry Commission, the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas and the Municipal Coordination of Civil Protection of Xichu remain activated, as well as the improvement of equipment for coordination, communication and information analysis tasks, as well as for the administration of available human resources.

Also, overflights are carried out with a drone to monitor the evolution of the fire, as well as to evaluate and analyze operational strategies. Besides, follow-up meetings are held within the activities of the Unified Command Center, for the implementation of the actions to be carried out. according to the conditions and characteristics of the fire evolution.

The institutions that participate in the actions carry out the movement of combat personnel to a control zone against the spread of the fire coordinated by personnel from the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas of the Sierra Gorda area of ​​Guanajuato.

The State Coordination of Civil Protection, meanwhile, evaluates with its paramedics the health of the personnel prior to them being sent to the fire line, considering the exhaustion conditions generated by the long walks to the fire zone, being on average 5 to 6 hours of winding road.

Regarding the area affected by the flames, there is a preliminary report that it is 110 hectares.