Spain asks for European help to fight raging wildfires fuelled by heat, wind
Spain has officially asked for assistance from its European neighbours to fight forest fires that have been raging through the country's northwest.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Wednesday that Spain has called on the European Union's assistance mechanism to help fight at least 14 fires currently ravaging the country.
Among other things, it requested two Canadair firefighting aircraft, in anticipation of the fires getting worse.
In an interview with local media Cadena SER, Grande-Marlaska said the country is ready to seek more help, such as more firefighters, when needed.
The assistance mechanism set up by the European Commission in 2001 allows for the 27 European member states and 10 other countries to come to each others' aid.
Fires raging through Spain
Fires, fuelled by extreme temperatures and strong winds, have destroyed thousands of hectares in several regions of Spain, as they have elsewhere in Europe, notably in France and Portugal.
Currently 14 major fires are burning in the northwest of the country, notably in the Castile and León and Galicia regions.
Two people have been killed in the fires in Castile and León and seven people were hospitalised on Wednesday.
More than 8,000 people have been evacuated as a precautionary measure in the face of two fires in the provinces of León and Zamora.
According to the president of Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, thirty fires are being extinguished every day in the region.
Some 11,500 hectares have burned, particularly in the Ourense province where firefighters have been unable to contain a large fire in Chandrexa de Queixa.
(with newswires)