LISBON, July 3 (Reuters) – Portugal has asked the EU, Spain and Morocco to have extra firefighting aircraft ready in case wildfires worsen during the current heatwave, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said on Friday.
He said the unusual move was prompted not by a shortage of national resources, but by what he described as an “exceptional situation” in the coming days, with the “entire country facing a very high risk of wildfires.”
“We believe it is better to receive support from our EU allies and closest neighbours than to divert resources from other parts of the country where they are currently deployed,” he told a news conference, explaining why Lisbon had activated EU Civil Protection Mechanism and bilateral agreements with Spain and Morocco.
Parts of mainland Portugal are under red weather warnings issued by the national weather agency IPMA, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in some districts.
Mainland Portugal is under a state of alert until late Monday, with authorities restricting access to certain forest areas, banning forestry work using machinery and prohibiting farmers from conducting controlled burns.
More than 2,800 firefighters, backed by 864 vehicles and 32 aircraft, were battling six wildfires across Portugal on Friday, with the largest blaze burning in the central district of Viseu, civil protection authorities said.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by William Maclean)
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