In the summer of 2025, Albania was particularly affected by wildfires. A multinational response offered support, including aerial assets from Croatia, Italy, Czechia and Slovakia. Despite only receiving their final two H225Ms days earlier, the Hungarian Air Force also joined the operation. Major Gabor Olàh details the helicopters’ critical role.
Wildfires in southern European countries are becoming more frequent and more intense, as a direct consequence of climate change. The summer of 2025 would prove to be particularly devastating and in July, the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism was activated to trigger a coalition of countries that coordinated to protect Albanian towns and villages and the local residents from rapidly spreading blazes.
500,000 litres of help during firefighting mission
When responding to such intense fires, there isn’t a moment to lose. The Hungarian Air Force received the call for support on the afternoon of 22 July. At 5am the following day planning and preparation began for the mission. Two H225Ms left Hungary at 10am, which meant they could be immediately deployed. “Assigning helicopters and aircrews at short notice can be challenging even with a fleet of 16 and a relatively sizeable pool of aircrews,” notes Major Olàh. “We were able to depart at 10am, thus enabling us to fly our first sortie on the first day of the deployment.” During a 5-day deployment from 23-27 July, 16 personnel were involved, completing 20 sorties and executing 300 water bucket drops—delivering a total of around 500,000 litres of water—going a long way to help douse the flames.
Standing up to the heat
Complementing local and international rotary- and fixed-wing assets, the H225Ms enhanced the flexibility of the operations, operating simultaneously across Albania. Major Olàh explains that the helicopters were a valuable support to crews in a rapidly evolving situation which necessitated quick decision making. “The crews were redirected from north of Tirana to populated areas in danger, and later had to split their efforts,” he says.
Obviously, flying in the face of such intense fires is difficult work. “Flying in a mountainous environment can be very challenging because of the turbulent winds, steep slopes, lack of space for manoeuvring, just to name a few reasons. However, my most memorable moment was when we were able to prevent the fire from reaching a village in the vicinity of Kucove Air Base. Dropping water almost next to the houses of the village required real precision flying and was a great success,” explains Olàh. Fortunately, the H225M comes equipped with state-of-the-art avionics and automatic flight control systems that significantly reduced crew workload during these taxing operations. The major also highlights that the helicopters had technology that supported the crew’s work. “Interestingly, in such a challenging environment the Airbus performance planning application (on iPad) proved to be extremely valuable for complex maximum takeoff weight (MTOW), fuel and range calculations in the challenging environment, and the aircraft delivered the performance exactly as planned.”
A perfect initiation and a bright future
Fighting the fires required seamless integration, with the Albanian Civil Defense providing liaison personnel for full-scale briefings, updates and re-tasking. As well as being ready to go to Albania, the H225M’s design allows for high readiness with minimal logistic support, even in a foreign country operating within regular maintenance procedures. Though challenging, Major Olàh believes that the mission in Albania provided Hungarian crews with invaluable experience, stating: “In order to be able to use any platform to its maximum capabilities it is essential to gain real-life experience. Such complex missions, like firefighting, present a perfect opportunity for that. The H225M proved to be a solid, versatile and capable platform.”
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