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One of the 153 rescuers mobilised via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to help the local emergency teams with search and rescue operations.
© European Union, 2024
An expert from the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre is helping organize the operations from the ground.
© European Union, 2024
The flash floods in Spain severely impacted densely populated areas, taking a heavy toll on human life, the environment, and infrastructure.
Aerial assessments of the damage and needs have been crucial for effective response and recovery efforts.
© European Union, 2024 (photographer: Joao Silva).
In an emergency response, coordination is crucial.
Team leaders and appointed liaison officers from all teams involved in the recovery operations remained in close contact to ensure adequate resources for identified needs.
© Communication UIISC 7 - Sécurité Civile France, 2024. All rights reserved.
The force of water also swept multiple cars away. Many of them piled up, blocking roads and creating safety risks for passersby.
The French and Portuguese teams used heavy machinery to clear the debris.
© Communication UIISC 7 - Sécurité Civile France, 2024. All rights reserved.
As the floods receded, they left behind broken tree branches, trunks, mud, and significant industrial waste.
The responders deployed through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism worked to clear the heaviest debris and clean up the area.
© Communication UIISC 7 - Sécurité Civile France, 2024. All rights reserved.
Despite the challenging conditions on the ground and further rainfall in the first few days of the mission, all the teams maintained high morale.
© Communication UIISC 7 - Sécurité Civile France, 2024. All rights reserved.
The Portuguese team deployed 102 personnel and 30 vehicles, such as water pumping trucks used to clear sewage and drainage systems, and to remove water from blocked city tunnels.
© Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil, 2024. All rights reserved.
Members of local emergency services continued their work alongside EU teams, focusing on removing water, mud, rubble, and other waste. Joining forces helped accelerate the recovery efforts.
© European Union, 2024 (photographer: Joao Silva).
4 flags, 1 mission: delivering flood relief to the hardest-hit communities.
As climate disasters become more frequent, the EU continues to invest in strengthening Europe’s prevention, preparedness, and emergency response efforts.
© Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil, 2024. All rights reserved.
At Spain’s request, the EU helped mobilise emergency assistance from France and Portugal.
To ensure a smooth coordination of this incoming aid, 2 EU liaison officers joined the recovery operations on the ground.
© Communication UIISC 7 - Sécurité Civile France, 2024. All rights reserved.
The French team consisted of 50 responders and 29 specialised vehicles, including excavators, lift trucks, loader tractors, and other.
© Communication UIISC 7 - Sécurité Civile France, 2024. All rights reserved.
The EU also mobilised support for Albania, following the activation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to battle severe wildfires in the country.
The response included 1 multipurpose military plane from Romania with a capacity of 6 tons of water.
© European Union, 2024.
The European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) immediately mobilised both aerial and ground firefighting resources from several European countries that are part of the Civil Protection Mechanism to assist Greece.
© Securité Civile, 2024. All rights reserved.
This support included 2 rescEU firefighting planes from Italy, a rescEU helicopter from France and a helicopter offered by Serbia.
© Moldovan Civil Protection, 2024. All rights reserved.
This year's wildfires outside of Athens burned around 40,470 hectares of forest.
© IGSU, 2024. All rights reserved.
Additionally, ground firefighting teams were deployed from Czechia, France, Italy, Serbia and Romania to support the Greek civil protection authorities.
© IGSU, 2024. All rights reserved.
Romanian, Maltese and Moldovan firefighters, already prepositioned in Greece, were also among the first responders battling the fires in Greece.
© IGSU, 2024. All rights reserved.
These helicopters then assist ground teams by delivering hundreds of gallons of water over the fire line.
The buckets used can be either collapsible or rigid, with varying capacities depending on the helicopter's lifting capability.
© Fire Rescue Service of Czechia, 2024. All rights reserved.
Before a response can take place, firefighters meet and discuss with experts to create an effective plan to tackle the fire.
© European Union, 2024.