国际英语新闻：EU activates civil protection mechanism after Greece's wildfires

BRUSSELS, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission said here Sunday that it has activated the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection following a spreading wildfires in Greece.

    The decision was made by the request of Greece after extreme weather conditions fueled the spreading of the fires in the country, the commission said in a statement.

    The wildfires continues to spread on Sunday in areas near Athens, forcing hundreds of residents to flee their homes.

    Italy immediately sent two Canadair CL-415 amphibian water-bombing aircrafts to assist in putting out the fires, the statement said.

    In addition, upon a request by the Monitoring and Information Center (MIC), France is ready to mobilize two Canadair CL-215 airplanes of the European tactical reserve of fire fighting aircraft (EUFFTR), which was established this summer to assist member states facing major fires.

    Cyprus offered to send a fire fighting helicopter, according to the commission.

    The EUFFTR, which just completed a five-day fire extinction job in Portugal earlier this week, has already assisted the EU member states in quelling forest fires for four times since it began servicing in July.

    The MIC, operational heart of the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection within the commission, is available on an all-hour basis and provides countries access to the community civil protection platform.

    Any country affected by a major disaster, inside or outside the EU, can launch a request for assistance through the MIC.