The IAWF is delighted to be supporting and attending the Aerial Firefighting Conference which is taking place at the Royal Olympic Hotel in Athens, Greece on the 21-22nd October 2008.

This is the first conference to focus its attention on the aerial fire fighting fixed and rotary-winged technologies and operations and is a truly international event with representatives from more than 30 countries attending. Operators from Australia, South Africa, Russia, Italy, France, Korea, Spain, Greece, Croatia, and, of course, Canada and the USA will be talking about their operational experiences. Ministries of Interior, Agriculture and Forestry as well as ground fire brigades will be joining the meeting. A major fixed and rotary-winged aerial fire fighting demonstration will be laid on at Elefsis Air Force Base, just outside Athens, by the Hellenic Air Force and other international operators for the benefit of the visitors to the show.

A major Panel Session will be taking place on a European initiative to develop a Cross-Border Rapid Reaction Aerial Firefighting Squadron to assist with Pan-European wildfires. Mr Christopher Allen from the European Union’s Environment General Directorate Civil Protection Unit will host this international debate. There will also be another Panel Session covering Air Pollution from Wildfires hosted by Professor Milt Statheropolous, Council of Europe - European Center for Forest Fires (ECFF).

We hope that you will be able to join us in Athens and ask those interested parties to register here.

HERE is a downloadable flyer about the conference (274k pdf)

The International Association of Wildland Fire is pleased to announce that it has awarded its’ scholarships for 2008 to two students in Canada and The Netherlands. These scholarships, each worth $2,500 USD, are designated for Master of Science or PhD. students studying wildland fire or wildland fire-related topics.

Kara Yedinak, a PhD. Student at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, received one of the scholarships. Kara has worked for the last four years on laboratory experiments and model development which look at answering some of the fundamental questions in fire behavior science. Her PhD. research will involve evaluation and application of a coupled atmosphere-fire model to better understand the role of fire with regards to air quality.

Cathelijne R. Stoof, a PhD. student at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, received the other scholarship. Cathelijne has been working on soils and hydrology combining field, lab and modeling approaches in the Netherlands and abroad. In her PhD research she uses a multiscale approach to explain post-fire erosion and flooding events by studying the effects of fire on soil water movement.

More information is available on our scholarships page on our web site, including photos, previous scholarship winners, and information about the 2009 program.