Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate in France and Spain, and a national state of emergency has been declared in Spain.
The forest fires raging in southern Europe have prompted both Spain and France to activate the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (ERCC) to receive international support and reinforcement in their fight to extinguish the fires.
Sweden is ready
France can count on reinforcements in the form of two Croatian aircraft to extinguish forest fires from the air, two aircraft from Portugal and two Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on the platform X. Now help is also coming from Sweden.
We are also prepared to send two national scooping planes to the country that the ERCC directs us to upon acceptance, says Jonas Klint, press secretary at MCF, the Swedish Civil Defence Agency, to TT.
To get the operation underway as efficiently as possible, MCF is also preparing to send team leaders as early as Friday. Whether it will be to France, Spain or both countries is still unclear.
Effort in a week or so
An operation will probably last between seven and eight days, says Jonas Klint.
Nationally, we have a relatively stable weather situation, from a forest fire perspective, he says.
Sweden has two scooping aircraft qualified for rescEU, Europe's common resources for crisis management.
For these aircraft, the EU finances the lion's share of the costs for preparedness and response, while Sweden serves as the host country.
