Press Release: European Union helps fight forest fires in France

Following the spreading of major forest fires in Corsica, France made a request for fire fighting aircraft through the Commission's Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), which is based in Brussels. For the first time, the MIC responded to such a request by making use of the European reserve of fire fighting aircraft that it had established to assist Member States that face major forest fires. The planes were operational less than three hours after the request.