Norway seeks EU help with largest forest fire in its history
Pastor Dale Morgan
Norway seeks EU help with largest forest fire in its history*
View of damages after a huge forest fire in the Froland municipality
north west of the city of Arendal, southern Norway, on June 15, 2008.
Dry conditions and unpredictable winds have fuelled the progress of the
fire which has now consumed more than 3000 hectares. Photo courtesy AFP.
by Staff Writers
Oslo (AFP) June 15, 2008
Norway called on European Union countries on the weekend to help it
bring the largest forest fire in its modern history under control.
"We have for several days been in contact with our European Union
partners and this contact intensified this morning with the aim of
obtaining their assistance," Norwegian Justice Minister Knut Storberget
said following a crisis meeting on the fire.
Some 4,000 hectares (8,500 acres) of forest have already gone up in
smoke in the southern county of Aust-Agder, according to calculations by
the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DSB).
"This is the largest forest fire ever registered in modern history" in
Norway, Tor Suhrke of DSB said in a statement.
Four civilian and two military helicopters and about 100 firefighters
were busy battling the flames, which have been raging for days in an
area plagued by drought and high summer temperatures.
Four more civilian helicopters were to join the efforts to extinguish
the blaze later Friday, Suhrke told the Aftenposten daily's Internet
edition.
Norway, which is not a member of the EU, has requested that members of
the bloc send aerial fire-fighting support.
"To my knowledge, we have not yet received a response," Storberget said.
No one has been injured in the fire, burning in a sparsely populated
area, but some 70 people have been evacuated from their homes.
A number of fires have in recent weeks also plagued neighbouring Sweden,
which has also experienced a long spell of hot and dry weather. A single
fire in the centre of the country laid waste to 1,000 hectares.