Help from Romania, Slovakia and Poland is expected to arrive on Thursday and Friday after Greece activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and asked for assistance in fighting the major wildfires raging in the country, Fire Brigade spokesperson Yiannis Artopios announced on Wednesday.
“Our country submitted a request for assistance to the EU civil protection mechanism, [asking] for three ground units of firefighters that also have firefighting vehicles. Responses to Greece’s request came from: Romania, which will offer a ground unit with 40 firefighters, five water trucks and another 10 firefighters with five fire engines who are expected to reach our country on Thursday; Slovakia, which will provide ground units with 31 firefighters and 15 water trucks, arriving in our country on Friday; and Poland, which will provide a ground unit with 149 firefighters and 49 water trucks that will also arrive in our country on Friday,” Artopios said.
Also deployed in response to Greece’s activation of the EU civil protection mechanism were four Canadair firefighting planes from Italy and France, which arrived in Greece on Tuesday and have already joined the firefighting effort.