Swedish firefighting planes to help battle Bohemian Switzerland fire

Two aircraft from Sweden arrived in Czechia on Friday to help with the firefighting efforts in Bohemian Switzerland. The Air Tractor planes are of a similar type to the Canadair aircraft from Italy that arrived on Wednesday and have now had to be recalled to join firefighting efforts on the Italian peninsula, in the sense that they can both take water directly from the surface. However, each of the Swedish planes can only hold 3,000 litres of water, half of the capacity of the planes from Italy.

The fire in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park has been raging since Sunday. The fire has affected an area of around 1,200 hectares, or ​​five by two kilometres. About 500 people have had to be evacuated so far.