Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
SPAIN’s European allies are providing help and resources to the country as it battles unprecedented fires in a period of extreme heat.
Spanish firefighters, helicopters, and water-bombing aircraft are helping to stop the flames from spreading across Picos de Europa.
From Slovakia, a Black Hawk firefighting helicopter has been deployed to the Base of Pinofranqueado in Cáceres, ready to lend its aerial support to ground crews.
Germany has sent 60 volunteer forest firefighters and more than 20 vehicles, mobilising at the IF Jarilla front in Cáceres.
READ MORE European allies fly into Spain to assist in the fight against deadly forest fires which are engulfing that country
Meanwhile, Italy has dispatched two Canadair water-bombing planes, which have already landed at Matacán Air Base in Salamanca to bolster the aerial firefighting effort. The planes join two French aircraft of the same design that landed last week in Santiago de Compostela.
Spain’s appeal for assistance through the European Civil Protection Mechanism is a reflection of the severity and urgency of the current situation. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez confirmed that this represents the largest-ever activation of the system, with assistance materialising from France, Slovakia, Germany and the Netherlands.
This summer, flames have destroyed 1,580 square kilometers of land across the nation, resulting in over 1,900 soldiers being deployed, and hundreds homes being evacuated.
The crisis in Spain is most acute in the north and west. In León and Zamora, intense fires have forced the evacuation of ten villages nestled in the Picos de Europa’s shadow, threatening one of the nation’s most beloved natural landmarks.
The flames have already swept through Las Médulas, the UNESCO World Heritage site in León once famed as the Roman Empire’s largest gold mine, leaving parts of the ancient landscape charred and scarred.
Tragic is also the human cost. The fires have claimed the lives of two firefighters and left several others in critical condition.
Among the injured are a 56-year-old woman with burns over 48% of her body, a 36-year-old man with 50% burns, a 64-year-old man with 35% burns, an 80-year-old man with 15% burns, and a 77-year-old woman with 10% burns — several of them in critical condition.
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