The Armed Forces have been involved in some intense work throughout the summer. Fires have flared up in many places, and the authority has received requests for support from the emergency services.
“We have provided all the resources we were able to mobilise. Besides staff who voluntarily interrupted their holidays, we have had helicopters, Hercules aircraft assisting with transport, our own fire service with water tankers and JAS aircraft documenting firegrounds,” says Acting Operation Commander Urban Molin.
The Armed Forces have also distributed fuel and aviation fuel for civilian and international vehicles, aircraft and power stations, as well as its own. Around 648 cubic meters of aviation fuel were distributed, for example.
Most of the Armed Forces’ Home Guard battalions all over the country have been involved in putting out the fires. A number of the Armed Forces’ troops have also contributed various capabilities – management, cooperation and logistics, to name but a few.
“And we must not forget how we handled air coordination and had liaison officers on the ground, working with the Italian firefighting planes, at the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and county administrative boards and helping out with weather services. We also deployed teams of cooks to prepare food and staff who replaced laundry in the field,” says Urban Molin.
The Armed Forces also deployed drones on a number of occasions to identify seats of fires, produced mapping data and contributed communications equipment when the emergency services’ own radios were not working.
The authorities also assisted with oil decontamination, deploying both personnel and ships off Loftahammar.
“I am incredibly proud of all our staff who helped out with firefighting duties. Not least, I am impressed by our Home Guard personnel – they worked hard to move hoses through rough terrain, lug pumps around, fell trees and clear paths so that firefighting vehicles could get through,” says Supreme Commander Micael Bydén.