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MEDCOOPFIRE

Linked to the MED-Star strategic project, MEDCOOPFIRE aimed to strengthen firefighting by fostering collaboration and information exchange in border areas, accelerating intervention mechanisms.

The project

Funded under the Interreg Italy-France Maritime Program 2014-2020, which began in May 2019 and ended in July 2022, MEDCOOPFIRE involved the regions of Liguria, Sardinia, and Tuscany for Italy, and Corsica and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region for France. The project involved the establishment of regional forest fire intervention (AIB) units capable of intervening in case of particularly severe fires in the border territories of the project areas, cooperating with each other.
Thus, prototype vehicles were created, equipped with specific instrumentation for monitoring and extinguishing forest and interface fires, part of the cross-border AIB intervention unit recalling the European Union Mechanism, the European civil protection tool. This has enabled the creation of teams equipped with tools that can be deployed without technical or instrumental limitations for cross-border and transregional interventions. MEDCOOPFIRE has considered different types of set-up depending on the specific territorial needs: the prerogative of being able to operate across regional borders is to the advantage of local forest firefighting systems that, in case of need, can be supported by neighboring regions with greater effectiveness and efficiency, to the benefit of the operational subjects assigned to the firefighting intervention, the border territories and the resident population.
MEDCOOPFIRE has also led to the drafting of shared guidelines for operational activities among the different actors involved in forest firefighting.

Results

  • Realization of 7 prototype means to be used in border areas
  • Drafting of shared guidelines for operational activities among different actors
  • Strengthening and updating of software for simulating the behavior of the flame front

CIMA Research Foundation’s contribution

Within the project, CIMA Research Foundation, at the request of Regione Liguria, upgraded and updated the PROPAGATOR software for simulating the behavior of the flame front, which is among the tools available to the director of firefighting operations to support the definition of the tactical intervention scenario.