Phil Guy Aerial Firefighting Interview

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Phil Guy is the commercial director for London-based Tangent Link, Ltd. The company plans global conferences about aerial firefighting and the need for aerial resources during wildfires. However, there is an international struggle in the firefighting community for resources, due to dwindling budgets.

Aerial Firefighting and the Global Economy

"We've all found that budgets are tight everywhere we've been. Governments tend to not really address the aerial firefighting issue until something happens that has to turn their hand," Phil Guy says. He says that budget issues also depend on the country in question and what they are up against. Decisions have to be made about whether to buy or lease assets. Large countries, like the United States and Australia, have found that sometimes assets are not where they need to be at a given time.

Guy states that it is easy to forget about the need for aerial resources once the wildfire seasons are over. "Six months down the track, when you're just on the mop up and accusations are flying and things like that, that inevitably leads to...more reporting of how we can do things better. But then it dies down, and it dies down because people don't see it. It's not in your face anymore. You're not under threat anymore. The fire season's changed or stopped."

Changing governments and policies also affect the firefighting community. When another large fire occurs, it could happen several years after the previous one. At that point, the government may have changed.

Guy says that people are struggling to buy aerial assets due to the blurring of global fire season. "Probably ten years ago...you were quite happy that your fire season started at one point in the calender year and it finished at one point in the calender year. That's not the case today. We're finding out now that in Australia, as its fire season comes to an end...the European fire season is starting. They don't have those weeks as a window to get leased assets from one country to the next." In the future, this could lead to assets being in the wrong places globally.

More Information About Tangent Link

For more information about Tangent Link, Ltd. and its upcoming global aerial firefighting conferences, visit www.tangentlink.com.

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