Public Order and Safety Inspectorate: Lack of Cooperation in Fighting Wildfires

Press release | 11-05-2011

Cooperation is lacking in fighting wildfires in the Netherlands. Most of the safety regions in the Netherlands are not properly prepared for fighting wildfires. The Public Order and Safety Inspectorate (IOOV) concludes this in its ‘Thematic Analysis of Wildfires’ report that was sent to the Lower House today.

The Public Order and Safety Inspectorate is of the opinion that the parties involved in fighting wildfires in the Netherlands do not prepare themselves ‘adequately’. The report also shows that the equipment application and delivery procedures are inadequate. In addition, knowledge of wildfire fighting is lacking and too many different fire fighting methods are being used. The Public Order and Safety Inspectorate finds that the cooperation between the public authorities and nature management organizations still leaves much to be desired.

The Public Order and Safety Inspectorate investigated the organization of wildfire fighting in ten safety regions. Within the investigated regions the Public Order and Safety Inspectorate makes an exception for the safety regions in the Veluwe area (North, East and Central Gelderland). In these regions, organizations are well-prepared to fight wildfires, both at the administrative and the operational level, according to the Public Order and Safety Inspectorate. The Inspectorate believes that the conclusions in the report also apply to the non-investigated regions.

The findings result in the following concrete recommendations by the Public Order and Safety Inspectorate to all the parties involved in wildfire fighting:

  1. organize permanent administrative attention to wildfires
  2. strongly stimulate and support existing developments in the field of wildfire prevention and fighting, taking new insights and developments into account, and initiate new research;
  3. organize operational cooperation between nature management organizations and operational emergency services in all the links of the safety chain;
  4. develop a unité de doctrine for wildfire prevention and control;
  5. improve the preparations for fighting wildfires;
  6. (re-)institute a proper statistical registration of wildfires (number, nature and size), so that future research and policy can be substantiated quantitatively.

On Wednesday afternoon, the 11th of May, a symposium will be held in Apeldoorn (National Forest Services, Radio Kootwijk) organized around these findings and recommendations. All the parties involved in wildfire fighting will be represented at this symposium. The Ministry of Security and Justice will respond to the report by the Public Order and Safety Inspectorate with a policy proposal in the near future.

Responsible ministry