LISBON (Reuters) – The European Union sent two water bombing planes from Spain to the Portuguese island of Madeira on Thursday to help efforts to put out a wildfire that has been raging for eight days.
The blaze, which started on Aug. 14, has seared nearly 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres) of vegetation, mostly in mountainous areas with steep slopes and difficult access.
Portugal requested assistance via the EU civil protection mechanism RescEU. EU authorities provided the two Canadair planes and said the bloc stood ready to deploy additional resources if necessary.
Regional government chief Miguel Albuquerque said the planes would join the firefighting effort on Thursday afternoon.
“These planes, which dump 6,000 litres of water, will be only used to tame the fire in the central mountain range. They cannot be utilised in urban or agricultural areas,” he told the state broadcaster RTP.
Firefighters, backed by a dozen vehicles and a helicopter were tackling the blaze in the central mountain range and in Ponta do Sol, on the southern coast. Both fronts are on high ground and away from residential areas.
The Atlantic island of Madeira – an autonomous region of Portugal with around 250,000 residents that is a popular tourist destination – has been on alert for high temperatures and risk of wildfires for days.
Rising global temperatures due to climate change have led to more frequent wildfires, from Southern and Eastern Europe to North America and parts of Asia.
(Reporting by Patrícia Vicente Rua; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Frances Kerry)
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