The European Commission announced on Thursday that it was sending two firefighting aeroplanes to the island of Madeira to help Portugal battle wildfires that have destroyed about 5,500 hectares of land so far. The support falls under the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which responds to such disasters. At a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, a commission spokesman said two planes from the European Union’s strategic reserve in Spain would step in to help fight the fires on Madeira. Portugal asked the commission for assistance under the mechanism late on Wednesday, the spokesman said. Th…