Brussels, 28/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - European solidarity is once again at work, coming to the assistance of Portuguese authorities in their attempts to bring forest fires under control in an already critical situation which has worsened further over the last two days.
In response to Portugal's request for assistance through the European Civil Protection Mechanism on Tuesday afternoon 27 July, Italy, Greece and France immediately each made two water bomber planes available. Portugal accepted the Italian offer and these planes are expected to be in place and ready to operate from the afternoon of Wednesday 28 July. They will be based at the Ovar airbase in the north of the country.
The European Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), the Community's pivotal civil protection mechanism operational 24 hours a day, coordinates requests for assistance and matches them with the resources offered by the European countries which are part of the system (all EU member states, plus Iceland and Norway).
On Tuesday, Portugal had already registered a total of 350 forest fires and all available national resources were in constant use. The weather forecast indicates a continuation of the present scenario, which increases the risk of forest fires: very high temperatures, low humidity levels and winds blowing from the east. (A.N./transl.rt)