Prague, July 27 Slovakia, Poland and Italy have offered to send firefighting planes to the Czech Republic to help the country contain a major forest fire in a national park.

Currently, 410 firefighters from 83 units are fighting the blaze in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park near the town of Hrensko, the country’s fire and rescue service (FRS CR) announced on Tuesday. Four helicopters and two planes are also helping on the spot.

“As part of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, we have requested three Canadair planes and two helicopters to deal with the forest fire in Hrensko. Poland responded with a helicopter offer,” the service said. fire rescue in a tweet, adding that Slovakia and Italy also responded to “our request for aerial firefighting assistance.”

The wildfire, which started on Sunday, started to spread due to windy weather on Monday and even crossed the country’s border with Germany. So far, it has affected an area of ​​nearly 30 hectares in the park, according to local media.

Residents and tourists were evacuated. No casualties were reported, Xinhua news agency reported.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said after his visit to the park on Tuesday that the fire was raging in “hard-to-reach terrain and the use of aerial technology proved to be very effective”.

“So we turned to other countries with a request for firefighting helicopters and planes that could be used to manage the fire. I thank Slovakia, Poland and Italy, who have already promised help,” he tweeted.

FRS CR Director General Vladimir Vlcek told the Czech News Agency that he could not predict when the fire would end, which depends on the weather, especially the strength and direction. the wind.

“It may take several days to completely extinguish the fire,” he added.

Disclaimer: This post was auto-published from an agency feed without any text editing and has not been reviewed by an editor

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