BRUSSELS — More than 200 people were killed in forest fires across Europe in 2017 while more than 100 perished in flames last summer. This year, a new EU-backed fleet of fire-fighting planes is getting ready to prevent further disasters, EurActiv reports. Seven fire-fighting aircraft and six helicopters – this is how the so-called “rescEU” fleet looks like at the moment. These first assets were made available by six EU member states to fight forest fires. And they can be mobilised at any moment, at the request of European or foreign countries. …“We have recently seen forest fires rage throughout Europe, from north to south, from east to west. And fires don’t respect borders,” said Christos Stylianides, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, who was speaking at the Torrejón air base for the official launch of “rescEU”.