The European Union (EU) Emergency Response Coordination Center (ECRC) has mobilized 11 planes and a helicopter from the community reserve to help fight forest fires in Greece, the largest since 2000, it was announced this Tuesday.
To these devices are added the forest firefighting teams sent by six European countries, through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Since August 20, when Greece activated the mechanism for the second time this summer, 11 firefighting aircraft have been deployed stationed in Cyprus, Croatia, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden, as well as one Blackhawk helicopter deployed in the Czech Republic. and 407 firefighters. and 62 vehicles from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovakia, France, the Czech Republic, Romania and Serbia.
So far, more than 81,000 hectares have burned in the Greek region of Alexandroupoli, the largest area since 2000 in the EU, when the European forest fire information system was created.
Last week, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, had already stated that these fires in Greece are the largest registered in the EU.
The spokesman for the European Commission for crisis management, Balazs Ujvari, reiterated today, at a press conference, that the EU’s objective is to have 12 new Canadair aircraft, which will be parked in bases, and will be legal property of Croatia , France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The CCRE is the operational center of the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
Source: TSF
