Baku, July 27, AZERTAC
The European Union has deployed firefighting aircraft, helicopters and personnel to France and Spain as wildfires continue to spread across both countries, forcing more than 300,000 people to evacuate or shelter in place, Anadolu Agency reported citing a statement by the European Commission.
The assistance, mobilized through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, includes seven planes and four helicopters sent to France by the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, and Türkiye, according to a commission statement.
For Spain, the bloc has mobilized six firefighting planes from Greece, Italy and Türkiye, while Portugal has deployed 134 personnel and 41 vehicles to support firefighting efforts.
A European Commission liaison officer has also been deployed to Bordeaux to help coordinate EU assistance with French authorities.
The EU commission said firefighting teams from several European countries had already been pre-positioned in France and Spain ahead of the wildfire season as part of the EU's preparedness measures, allowing them to respond immediately after the fires broke out.
According to media outlet Euractiv, the EU's firefighting capacity is being overwhelmed by increasingly intense wildfires, with flames spreading faster than emergency teams can respond, a European Commission official has warned.
"These fires are faster than our capacity to try to put them out... We are very mindful that the response is not sufficient – the fires go beyond the capacity to extinguish them," he said, calling for careful management of limited resources.
The official highlighted the speed at which some fires are spreading, citing a blaze in Los Gallardos, Almeria, in southern Spain, where flames advanced at a rate of 6 kilometers per hour.
"Firefighters that are working on the ground, they can react to no more than 300 meters by hour," he said, noting that the speed and intensity of the fire had far exceeded available firefighting capabilities.
The scale of the wildfire was "ten times over the capacity" of the personnel and equipment deployed to contain it, the official said, adding that additional resources were urgently needed.
"We know (this is) something that is going to repeat in the future if we don’t change this policy," he said.
Europe is battling a wave of devastating wildfires, particularly in France, Spain, and Greece, as soaring temperatures fuel multiple blazes across the continent.
In Spain, fires continued to burn overnight in Avila and Madrid, scorching nearly 45,000 hectares (111,200 acres) and forcing about 100,000 people to evacuate or shelter in place.
In France, a wildfire that erupted on Wednesday in Saumos, Gironde, has consumed 42,000 hectares (103,800 acres), prompting the evacuation of approximately 220,000 people.