NICOSIA, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus sent to Israel two firefighting aircraft and a support team to assist in fighting forest fires after an overnight request by Israeli authorities, a Forestry Department official said on Friday.
The planes, with a crew of two each, headed for Haifa, while a four-member support team of fire fighters departed on a commercial aircraft from Larnaca.
Forestry department director Charalambos Alexandrou said another 60 firefighters were put on standby to depart for Israel if further assistance was requested.
Cyprus and Israel, along with Greece, have a standing arrangement to assist each other in fighting fires during the summer months when scorching temperatures and dry weather contribute to the outbreak of fires.
Help has been also sent by Greece, Italy and Croatia.
Fire danger this year is extremely high as rich rainfall helped grass to grow in abundance and is now tinder dry.
Even still in May, temperatures in the region are extremely high.
Cyprus recorded a record temperature of 42 degrees Celsius on Thursday and a temperature of 40 degrees is expected later in the day on Friday, well above the 27 to 29 degrees average for May.
