Portugal asks EU for assistance as wildfire reaches residential area

euronews (in English)

Almost 1,600 firefighters have been deployed to fight fires in 20 different areas on Monday, as the country battles with high temperatures and strong winds.

Transcript

00:00Portugal has requested assistance from the European Union as a series of wildfires reach

00:06residential areas across the country.

00:11Authorities have warned more than 100 municipalities are at extreme risk as emergency services

00:18struggle to control at least nine fires, made worse by high temperatures and wind.

00:27The situation is particularly critical in the Alentejo and Aveiro regions, where flames

00:32have consumed several houses and killed a firefighter.

00:37The Portuguese government has asked the EU Commission to activate its civil protection

00:42mechanism, which would provide Portugal with additional firefighters, water bombers and

00:47helicopters.

00:50It can also help by using satellite imagery from the Copernicus system, the Earth observation

00:56component of the EU's space programme, to track fires on the ground.

01:02Spain and France are sending firefighting aircraft to help tackle the flames.

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