EU Employs Civil Protection Mechanism To Assist Canada In Containing Wildfires - Official

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th June, 2023) The European Union has activated its special civil protection mechanism to help Canada fight devastating wildfires, the EU's crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, said on Thursday.

"Upon Canada's request for assistance in combating extreme wildfires, we have activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism," Lenarcic tweeted.

He added that France, Spain and Portugal had already offered to send a significant number of firefighters to Canada to help Canadian and neighboring countries' emergency services.

Earlier in the day, the White House said it had sent over 600 firefighters to help contain the wildfires in Canada.

The US government said that President Joe Biden offered Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau additional assistance in the form of all available US firefighting resources to help Canada contain the ongoing wildfires.

There are currently over 400 wildfires that have devastated Canadian forests over the last several weeks from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. Smoke from the fires has compromised the air quality for over 100 million US citizens across 18 states.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism is a strategy aimed at coordinating efforts of European states when responding to emergencies in and outside the bloc.