EU working 'non-stop' to support wildfire-affected countries

BRUSSELS: The EU said on Thursday it was working 'non-stop' to support countries battling wildfires raging across European countries.
Extreme summer heat, which scientists say human-driven climate change is exacerbating, has fuelled blazes across the region, including Greece, Portugal, Spain and the Balkans.
'We continue non-stop to work on the support of affected countries,' EU spokeswoman Eva Hrncirova said.
'Fighting wildfires is mainly the task for the member states, but we are here to help them and to assist them with our civil protection mechanism,' she added.
Under the mechanism, EU member states offer help to other countries on the continent and Brussels pays for the operations.
So far during the current fire season, it has been activated 16 times, said Hrncirova.
Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters battled to put out wildfires across southern Europe on Thursday, some of which are believed to have been set deliberately by arsonists and stoked by an extended heat wave gripping the region.
The European Union sent reinforcements to help Greece and Spain tackle blazes which have killed three firefighters, damaged homes and buildings and razed swathes of farm and forest land, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.
Hot and dry summers have been common in the Mediterranean region. But wildfires fanned by intense heat and winds, the result of a fast-changing climate, scientists say, have become more destructive and tougher to control.
From Portugal to Spain, Albania and Greece, firefighters struggled to contain towering walls of flames threatening life and property. The Iberian Peninsula alone made up about half of the EU's burned area of some 500,000 hectares so far this year, according to estimates by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
In Greece, more than 200 firefighters assisted by 11 aircraft battled to extinguish a blaze near the port city of Patras in the western Peloponnese. Elevated temperatures stoked tinderbox conditions.
'In such circumstances, just a spark is enough to start a fire which can quickly spin out of control,' said Greece's Civil Protection and Climate Change Minister Giannis Kefalogiannis.
Three people suspected of deliberately igniting wildfires near Patras were arrested and expected to appear before a public prosecutor on Thursday, a senior police official said. - AFP