The EU is assisting Chile in tackling forest fires. France, Portugal and Spain are deploying firefighters in response to a request for assistance from the Chilean authorities to the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the European Commission announced on Friday 10 February, at a time when the EU’s solidarity mechanism is being heavily mobilised for the emergency in Turkey and Syria, which were devastated by the earthquakes of 6 February.
Portugal is deploying a team of 141 firefighters, coordination experts and medical personnel; France 80 firefighters and Spain 28 firefighters as well as a forest fire assessment and advisory team of 10 experts.
The European Commission’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre is closely monitoring the situation and a European civil protection team is expected to be sent in the next few days, the EU institution said.
The Copernicus satellite programme’s emergency service has so far provided 15 satellite maps to help assess the situation in the most affected areas with accurate data.
In a statement, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, congratulates these three Member States for their contribution. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)