As tens of wildfires continue to spread across Greece, the European Union (EU) is deploying four Canadair firefighting planes from France and Italy together with three firefighting teams from Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
This means a total of 220 firefighters and 65 vehicles, noted an European Commission statement on Wednesday.
In addition, three pre-deployed ground firefighting teams from Romania, Bulgaria and Malta are already operating in Greece as a part of the EU’s Civil Protection wildfire season preparedness plan.
EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said: “We are experiencing a heatwave across Southern Europe already causing devastating consequences in Greece, with thousands of hectares burned in a short period of time.” Greece activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism on Tuesday, and the Commission continues to be in close contact with the Greek authorities and stands ready to mobilise additional assistance if needed, he added.
Source: Kuwait News Agency