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Stockholm (dpa) – Biting smoke moves in homes. According to Evert Hansson, on Swedish radio, only 20 minutes would have allowed them to pack their belongings and attach the caravan. "Everyone in the village should go there."
Because of the summer heat, dozens of big forest fires
were completely out of control in Sweden. Entire villages were evacuated on Thursday night.
About 40 fires are raging in forests all over the country, according to the Emergency Call Center. In the meantime, there were even over 80 smaller fires. The fire spreads rapidly because in Sweden it is very dry. For weeks, it has not rained properly – and all is not in sight. On Wednesday only, the Swedish Meteorological Service had issued more heat warnings for the next five days.
The village of Kårböle, about 380 kilometers north of Stockholm is now surrounded on three sides by flames. In a few hours, the fire zone had doubled Wednesday night, said a spokesman for the relief service of the newspaper "Aftonbladet". After that, the inhabitants were put in security. Another fire about 100 kilometers further south has quadrupled since Wednesday afternoon.
The fire spread incredibly fast, reports Evert Hansson. "In a few hours, large parts of the forest were in flames." He and his wife are strong, but their concern is theirs. "You do not know what's going on and what it's like at home now," says Hansson.
The Swedish authorities have asked for help from other countries. Italy and France sent fire-fighting planes, Norway provided helicopters. There were so many firefighters that the special aircraft from sunrise to sunset could be used, said an Italian pilot of the SVT television station.
At low altitude, yellow flyers are now firing on Swedish lakes, charging their belly full of water during overflight. The tanks contain 6,000 liters, which are then drained by the lights identified by the drone.
The unusual heat of summer causes problems not only in the Swedish forests. It also burns in Norway and Finland. On a Swedish military training ground about 50 kilometers from the border with Norway, it was still too hot Thursday because of fires in the area as a grenade exploded uncontrollably.
Forest fires are increasingly putting the Swedish government under pressure. The conservative opposition party Kristdemokraten criticized the fact that Sweden consists of 70% of forests, but did not have clean airplanes. The worst fires are likely to be ahead of them because of the prolonged heat. On Thursday afternoon, the head of state, Stefan Löfven, wants to visit one of the regions in crisis.
Liveblog of Swedish radio
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