Update, August 6: We received a call from a Swedish government official on August 5 after we posted the article below, asking if we had any recommendations on where they could obtain some air tankers to help suppress their fire. It turns out that the loan of the four water scoopers from Italy and France was falling through, partially due to political reasons, he told us. He asked about the 747 SuperTanker, and we told him that in light of Evergreen’s bankruptcy the status of that air tanker is in doubt. But we gave him some leads on several companies in the United States and Canada that may have some air tankers available that could fly over to Sweden to give them a hand. We made him promise to call us back in a couple of days to let us know how it turned out.
Update August 7: After checking, they could find no large air tankers available in North America. France eventually came through with four C-415s, and Italy with two.
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(Originally published at 7:16 a.m. MDT, August 5, 2014)
One person has been killed in one of the largest wildfires to have occurred in Sweden. The man in his 30s was found dead on a road north of Staback, Vastmanland. Another man found on a road in Staback was severely burned.
On Monday nine individuals, apparently not affiliated with a fire department, volunteered to drive water trucks to the fire, but became trapped by flames. With the aid of water dropped by helicopters, firefighters rescued them hours later. After that incident fire officials said they would no longer accept help from private individuals in the firefighting effort.
The 38,000-acre fire has forced the evacuation of about 1,000 people.
“It’s burning deep into the ground and across large areas. It’s going to take months to extinguish,” fire Chief Per Hultman was quoted saying in the Expressen newspaper.
In addition to the helicopters working the fire, four water-scooping air tankers, two each from Italy and France, will begin assisting firefighters on Tuesday.
The fire has been burning since Thursday 120 kilometers northwest of Stockholm. About 100 firefighters are assigned to the fire.
One person has died in what is said to be Sweden’s largest forest fire in over 40 years http://t.co/T3Kr9AXPoP pic.twitter.com/bps5ZXLZth
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 5, 2014
Update #2: Sweden could find no available large air tankers in North America, but Italy and France eventually came up with a total of six CL-415s.
We updated the article after receiving a call from a government official in Sweeden, asking where they could obtain some air tankers.