15 August 2016, 06:04 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Two Be-200 amphibious aircraft to assist Portugal in battling forest fires, following the receipt of a request from Lisbon, arrived in Portugal on August 13.
"The Emergencies Ministry's planes made a total of 122 water discharges with a total weight of almost 1,500 tonnes. As a result, 26 fires were extinguished, fire was prevented from spreading in the direction of three national parks and 13 settlements, which are populated by more than 68,000 people," the spokesperson said.
The Beriev Be-200 is well suited to firefighting missions. It can take in up to 12.5 metric tons of water in the space of a few seconds while traveling over a body of water before dropping it on the flames.
Wildfires are currently raging in several countries in Western Europe, including Portugal and Spain.
