European Commission reminds that it has available means of assistance in combating fires

BRUSSELS – The European Commission reiterated today that there are firefighting resources prepositioned in southern Europe, namely in Portugal, and that the intervention of European civil protection depends on a request from the member state.

When asked about the fires in southern Europe, the spokesperson for the community executive Anna-Kaisa Itkonen stated that Brussels has not yet received any request to activate the mechanism.

“We have helicopters and firefighters prepositioned in France and neighboring countries, such as Portugal, ready to help as soon as there are requests,” said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen.

So far, the European Union has made available 22 planes and five helicopters to combat fires, and 670 firefighters from various countries are deployed in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, and Italy, reinforcing national contingents.

During this fire season, the European Civil Protection Mechanism has already assisted in combating fires in Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania.

Meanwhile, a report from the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) reveals that a quarter of the rural fires investigated this year were caused by arson, and the area burned up to July records the third highest value since 2015.

The provisional report from ICNF, referring to July 31, indicates that the fires investigated up to that date had the most frequent causes of agricultural burns and controlled burns (32%), followed by “arson – attributable” (25%) and reignitions (8%).

According to the provisional report, between January 1 and July 31, 4,758 rural fires broke out, resulting in 33,224 hectares (ha) of burned area, including forests (15,545 ha), scrubland (13,704 ha), and agriculture (3,975 ha).

Compared to the same period last year, the flames consumed about seven times more, and the number of fires increased by 85%.