More than 250 firefighters, coordination technicians and medical personnel from France, Portugal and Spain have traveled to Chile to fight the forest fires that are ravaging the south and center of the country, BioBioChile reported on February 11.
“European solidarity knows no borders”said the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, in a statement released by the EU Delegation in Chile.
It is reported that a team of 141 people will arrive from Portugal, including firefighters, coordination experts and doctors. A team of 80 firefighters will arrive from France. Three groups of 38 people will arrive from Spain.
On Saturday, the Minister of the Interior of Chile, Carolina Toja, said that the area of forests affected by forest fires is 414,723 hectares. The official also said that so far there have been 98 forest fires in the affected regions. The Araucanía region is the one that suffers the most from the elements, where 40 fires rage. There are 23 fires in the Bio-Bio region and 22 fires in the Newble region. The number of people who died from the fires has not changed in the last two days and stands at 24 people.
According to the National Service for Disaster Prevention and Attention (Senapred), 1,301 homes were affected by the fires.
Earlier, Chile’s Deputy Interior Minister Manuel Monsalve said 2,212 firefighters and 1,824 volunteers were fighting the fire in the forests. The National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) uses 47 planes to fight the fire, the Chilean National Disaster Alert and Attention Service (Senapred) uses 14 planes, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff uses 9 planes. In addition, 38 forestry companies are fighting fires.
Source: Rossa Primavera
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.