Efforts to assist Sweden, which has for several days been fighting forest fires of an unprecedented scale, are being stepped up through the EU civil protection mechanism that is coordinated by the European Commission.
To the assistance made immediately available by Italy in response to the call from the Swedish authorities on 16 July (see EUROPE 12064), offers of equipment and firefighters from a number of European countries have since been added.
Seven Canadair water bombing aircraft, seven helicopters, sixty vehicles and over three hundred and forty firefighters made available by Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, Portugal, Poland and Austria were channelled to Sweden this weekend, the Commission said at midday on Monday 23 July. Norway has also offered firefighters.
“Over the past week and weekend a record level of EU support has been mobilised”, stated Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Commissioner Christos Stylianides. He said: “The fires in Sweden show that climate change is real and that no country is immune to natural disasters”, pointing out that the Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre has “been working 24/7 to help Sweden”.
On Monday, the extent of the fires had diminished but the four main fires were still burning in central Sweden. Satellite maps of the affected areas were supplied by the Copernicus programme last week. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)