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- ECHO Daily flash of 21/07/2018

Sweden is experiencing an exceptional amount of forest fires. The weather has been very dry for a long period of time and as of the 20 July there were around 45 ongoing fires in the country of which 15 are not under control. The counties of Gävleborg, Jämtland, Dalarna and Västerbotten are under high strain. Swedish authorities currently report at least 30 000 ha of burnt area.
Sweden activated the Union Civil Protection Mechanism on the 16 July and has since requested both aerial and ground forest fire fighting assistance. In response Italy and France have sent water bombing planes, Germany and Lithuania have sent water bombing helicopters, Poland and Denmark have sent ground forest fire fighting forces.
Further offers have been made from Austria, Portugal and Germany. Norway is supporting firefighting efforts with bilateral assistance. The total response enabled through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism now counts five planes, six helicopters, over 50 vehicles and 200 responders.
In the past 24 hours Italian and French planes have conducted over 330 water bombing drops tackling five large fires in the region of Gävleborg near the village of Kårböle where over 100 people have already been pre-emptively evacuated.
DG ECHO has deployed a Liaison officer to Sweden on 20 July.