EU experts sit behind a bank of screens in an emergency coordination centre in Brussels monitoring the latest updates from the wildfires ravaging swathes of France and Spain. 

While crews on the ground battle desperately to contain the blazes, the EU officials are responsible for shifting around stretched resources from across Europe to get the right equipment to where it is needed. 

"The team is monitoring the situation, monitoring the risk in France, how it will develop, and is in continuous contact with the French authorities to see whether they need additional support," Maria Zuber, the head of the unit told AFP Wednesday. 

The EU's emergency response capacity pools assets such as water-bombing planes, helicopters and fire trucks from across the bloc's 27 members and 10 other countries including the Western Balkans and Turkey. 

As disasters break out -- from wildfires in France to an earthquake in Venezuela -- officials in Brussels help marshal the assistance available to meet demands from the countries in need. 

So far for instance aircraft from places ranging from Slovakia and Slovenia to Portugal and Turkey have been deployed to southwestern France since Paris asked for the EU to help last week.

"We still have some gaps, so we are looking," Zuber said.  

"This past night Serbia offered additional helicopters."

'Staying very alert'

The fires raging in France and Spain this year are the latest to tear through parts of Europe as scientists blame growing heatwaves on human-caused climate change. 

This year extreme heat has parched vegetation that had grown vigorously during earlier wet weather, creating tinderbox conditions.

As the annual menace grows, the EU is bolstering the assets at its disposal, buying its own aircraft and getting countries to put more equipment on standby.

In Brussels, several dozen officials are on the duty roster at any one time keeping an eye 24/7 on any emergencies flaring up around the globe. 

Over the summer months they are supported by some 25 weather and fire experts from the EU's member states analysing how blazes could develop and where they might break out next.

"We have implemented mechanisms that have been improved over time, as we recognised that forest fires were becoming an increasing challenge in recent years," said Borja Miguelez, the deputy head of the emergency centre. 

"We have increased the availability of aerial resources and enhanced the technical capacity of the teams managing the emergency response."

While the simultaneous blazes in France and Spain are straining resources and fire crews on the ground, Miguelez says that so far the EU has managed to meet all the requests for assistance. 

But with more extreme heat ahead in the coming days warnings of potential fires are flashing red in other regions and the demands could grow.  

"Today we're seeing two forest fires on a very, very large scale, but we're also remaining very vigilant for the future, because summer isn't over yet, and we're now set to experience another heatwave," Miguelez said. 

"So we're remaining very alert about what might lie ahead as well."

by Max Delany