MADRID (Reuters) -Spain is seeking help from its European partners to tackle wildfires raging across the country, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Wednesday.
In particular, it requested two Canadair planes, he said in an interview with local media Cadena SER.
“At the moment we don’t need the two Canadair planes urgently, but, given the weather forecast, we want to have those planes in our national territory as soon as possible so they can be used, should they be necessary,” he said.
While for now it isn’t necessary, the country is ready to seek more help from its European allies, such as more firefighters, he added.
In Spain, a volunteer firefighter died from severe burns and several people were hospitalised as state weather agency AEMET warned that almost all of the country was at extreme or very high risk of fire.
Spain was in its 10th day of a heatwave that peaked on Tuesday with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), and which AEMET expected to last until Monday, making it one of the longest on record.
(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi; Editing by Mark Porter and Aurora Ellis)
