False Claims About Moroccan Assistance in Firefighting
Recent social media messages have circulated a video depicting an aircraft flying over a crowd, falsely asserting that Morocco has dispatched "four water bombers" to assist Spain in combating the devastating wildfires affecting Madrid. This assertion is completely unfounded. The video in question is not recent; in fact, it has been circulating since 2022. The Spanish Ministry of the Interior has confirmed to VerificaRTVE that as of the date of this article, they have not received any aircraft from Morocco, and there are no official communications from either the Spanish or Moroccan governments announcing such assistance.
The misleading narrative suggests that while many media outlets remain silent, Morocco has sent four water bombers to aid the Spanish Government in extinguishing the fires in Madrid. This claim was propagated through an Instagram post dated July 26, which showcased the aforementioned video. A TikTok post with over 13,900 likes also shared the same footage, captioned "Grasiac Morocco (SIC)" with the hashtags #Spain and #Madrid.
The Origin of the Misleading Video
Upon investigation, it was revealed that this video does not correspond to the current fires in Madrid. Instead, it is an older recording that has been misrepresented as recent. The footage, originally shared on TikTok on July 12, 2022, includes a French message stating, "To combat the fires in Gard, the Canadairs come to refill water from the Rhône in Vallabrègues. Stay tuned!". The video has been geolocated to the vicinity of the Vallabrègues lock on the Rhône River in southern France, with Google Maps providing confirmation of similar scenes captured in the video.
Furthermore, the Ministry of the Interior has reiterated that Morocco has not sent any aerial resources to participate in the firefighting efforts in Spain. There is also no official announcement from the Moroccan government regarding an offer of four water bombers for this emergency. Spain's international assistance is instead coming from other countries, including Portugal, Greece, and Italy, all of which have joined in the firefighting efforts in Madrid and Ávila. The European Commission has reported the deployment of firefighting planes mobilized through the European emergency system, including four Canadairs from Italy and Greece, among other international resources to support the extinguishing efforts.
It is important to clarify that while Morocco has a fleet of Canadair water bombers and has participated in international firefighting operations in the past, it has not provided any assistance in this instance.
As reported by rtve.es.
