A large forest fire erupted in the province of V?stmanland, Sweden on July 31st and is still raging as of today. At the moment the fire breaks are holding but extremely hot and dry weather means that spreading will resume if the wind picks up.
Currently some 37,000 acres have burned with 1,200 evacuated, ome killed and two serious injuries. On tuesday - fanned by strong winds - the fire advanced two kilometers per hour and nearly overran a town of 4,500 - Norberg - plus a world heritage site before the wind died down again.
Currently 250 firefighters and military are on the ground in the woods with around 12 helicopters and six airplanes in the air plus a large support contingent.
Disaster assistance was requested via EU channels with Italy providing two superscoopers, France two superscoopers plus one recon aircraft and Norway two choppers.
Large volumes of hose have been lost when the fire have made jumps and with some 700 km currently rolled out the national supply have been tapped out with hose manufacturers attempting to provide more.
Situation is aggrevated by very large military and civil defense cutbacks over the last decade which is severely hampering the response.
All in all it remains doubtful will hold, full extinguishing expected to take months.
Currently some 37,000 acres have burned with 1,200 evacuated, ome killed and two serious injuries. On tuesday - fanned by strong winds - the fire advanced two kilometers per hour and nearly overran a town of 4,500 - Norberg - plus a world heritage site before the wind died down again.
Currently 250 firefighters and military are on the ground in the woods with around 12 helicopters and six airplanes in the air plus a large support contingent.
Disaster assistance was requested via EU channels with Italy providing two superscoopers, France two superscoopers plus one recon aircraft and Norway two choppers.
Large volumes of hose have been lost when the fire have made jumps and with some 700 km currently rolled out the national supply have been tapped out with hose manufacturers attempting to provide more.
Situation is aggrevated by very large military and civil defense cutbacks over the last decade which is severely hampering the response.
All in all it remains doubtful will hold, full extinguishing expected to take months.