The European Commission on Thursday announced that it was sending two firefighting aeroplanes to help Portugal battle wildfires on the island of Madeira. At a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, a commission spokesman said two planes from the European Union’s strategic reserve were already on the way from Spain to Madeira and were expected to arrive later that day. The support falls under the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which responds to such disasters. Portugal asked the commission for assistance under the mechanism late on Wednesday, the spokesman said. The commission is also prov…