A method for the detection and combating of forest and surface fires includes the steps of observing and detecting fires using an infrared camera on board an observation aircraft; georeferencing image obtained by the infrared camera pixel-wise using location data of the observation aircraft as obtained by a satellite navigation system; testing the georeferenced infrared image for hot points caused by a fire, and transmitting coordinates of the hot points via a data link to a central data processing system on the ground; automatically generating deployment plans for available firefighting vehicles in the central data processing system taking into consideration data relating to the terrain and data on available firefighting equipment; transferring the deployment plans generated in the central data processing system to on-board management systems of deployed vehicles; representing deployment data and coordinates corresponding to the deployment plans with output apparatus by the on-board management systems of the deployed vehicles; and carrying out fire-fighting by the deployed vehicles in accordance with the data displayed by the on-board management systems.