The first members of a European force sent to Greece to act as backup in case of major wildfires during the summer took up their posts in Greece on Saturday. These firefighters are from Romania and Bulgaria, and there are a number of them.
In Greece, where a slew of wildfires wreaked havoc last summer, more than 200 firemen and equipment from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Romania, Norway, and Finland will be on standby throughout the warmest months of July and August.
28 Romanian firemen with eight cars and 16 Bulgarian firefighters with four vehicles were the first to arrive for the two-month operation, which was funded and organised by the civil protection apparatus of the European Union.
As he greeted the Romanian mission members in Athens on Saturday, Greek Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides stated, ‘We thank you very much for coming to support us during a terrible summer for our nation and for displaying that European solidarity is not just theoretical, it’s genuine.’
‘You’ll work with our Greek firefighters to defend people and property during difficult circumstances.’
The Bulgarian firefighters are based in Larissa, a city in central Greece.
Greece saw its worst heatwave in thirty years this summer, which resulted in flames destroying almost 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and wilderness.
The Greek government established a new ministry of civil protection and promised to improve firefighting capacity after getting strong criticism for how it handled the flames.
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