Czech and Slovak Black Hawks to help battle French wildfires

The Czech and Slovak Republic will again send Black Hawk helicopters to help fight devastating wildfires in France under the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that two heavy Black Hawk helicopters from Czechia and Slovakia will join firefighting operations alongside aircraft from Croatia and Portugal. The deployment comes just days after two Czech helicopters returned home from an earlier firefighting mission in France. Authorities are expected to use the helicopters in the hard-hit Gironde department, where wildfires have burned around 4,800 hectares and forced the evacuation of about 20,000 people. Fresh evacuations were ordered near the popular Cap Ferret peninsula on Friday.