The Swedish Agency for Social Protection and Preparedness, MSB, has normally seen helicopters that are usually used for fighting fires in Dalarna, located in Västerås, says Johan Szymanski, rescue manager for the Northern Dalarna Fire Brigade.

- Then it may take a while before they come into place, he says.

"Feels nice that they are in place"

During Wednesday, MSB placed two helicopters at the airport in Mora because of the very high risk of forest fires in the county.

- We had a number of fires yesterday where helicopters were required, so it feels good that they are in place if it starts to burn today. There is a big risk for it given the thunderstorm yesterday. There may be fires following previous lightning strikes that are gaining momentum in the afternoon, Szymanski said on Wednesday morning.

Risk of fire in the tree canopy

He also calls for caution with regard to forest machines.

- We have seen fires at several forest machines, so we urge to have fire guards at them in this situation, says Szymanski.

He also says that there is a risk of so-called top fires right now.

- We have extremely high fire risk values. It's on a femma. We can also make sure what we call the spread index that if we get a fire, there is a great risk that the fire will climb up to the crowns and that there will be top fires. They spread incredibly fast.