The Portuguese government said on Monday, February 6, it was ready to send a team of 140 firefighters to help Chile fight the deadly forest fires raging in the center of the country.
"
We have already communicated to the European mechanism (of civil protection, editor's note) the availability of approximately 140 elements of different corporations and services
", declared to the Portuguese media the Minister of the Interior, José Luis Carneiro, expressing his "
solidarity
towards the Chilean victims and rescuers.
24 dead and 1182 injured
Lisbon is now awaiting Santiago's response on its ability to accommodate this contingent made up of firefighters, forest firefighters and staff from the Gendarmerie's Special Civil Protection Force, the minister said, quoted by the Lusa news agency.
The multiple forest fires that continue to rage in central Chile, where an intense heat wave is raging, have left 24 dead and 1,182 injured, according to a new report released Sunday by the authorities.
Portugal is also regularly hit by forest fires, sometimes having to call for international help to put an end to them.
Five Chilean firefighters died in Portugal in 2006, while fighting a forest fire in the center of the country on behalf of a private company created by the paper industry to protect its forests.
