Portugal seeks EU help as wildfire threatens UNESCO-listed forest
The Peninsula
Lisbon: Portugal on Wednesday appealed to EU partners for assistance in fighting a wildfire on the Atlantic island of Madeira that has raged for a wee...
Lisbon: Portugal on Wednesday appealed to EU partners for assistance in fighting a wildfire on the Atlantic island of Madeira that has raged for a week and threatened a UNESCO-listed forest.
The country will shortly trigger the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to bolster firefighting efforts with two Canadair water bomber planes, a government source told the Lusa news agency.
The head of the regional government, Miguel Albuquerque, said 60 extra firefighters and first aid specialists had arrived from the Portuguese mainland on top of 76 already sent since the wildfire started on Wednesday last week.
The fire had burned 4,392 hectares (10,850 acres) of land up to Tuesday, the European Union's Copernicus observatory said on the X social media platform. It added that more than 950 hectares had burned in the previous 24 hours.
Regional civil protection chief Antonio Nunes told RTP public television that the flames had touched a part of the Laurissilva forest, the largest surviving laurel forest, that is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. He said the damage was not significant.
