The first of a 200-strong team of firefighters from Europe began operations in Athens on Saturday (July 2) as part of a move by the European Union to pre-emptively station firefighters in Greece to be prepared for any summer blazes, Reuters reports.
A cohort of 28 firefighters from Romania along with eight vehicles, and 16 firefighters from Bulgaria with four vehicles were the first to arrive for the 60-day mission.
The Romanians will be stationed in Athens, while the Bulgarian firefighters will be in Larissa, in central Greece.
Greece's civil protection and climate crisis minister, Christos Stylianides thanked the firefighters for coming during a "difficult" summer and showing that European solidarity "is not just theoretical."
"When things get tough, you will be side by side with our Greek firefighters so we can save lives and properties, and limit the effect of wildfires on the environment and the climate," said Stylianides during a welcome ceremony at Athens' Hellenic Fire Academy, where the Romanian team will be headquartered.
More than 200 firefighters and equipment from Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Romania and Norway will be stationed in Greece to provide immediate support for wildfires.
The assistance, financed and coordinated under the EU's civil protection mechanism, will come on top of firefighting aircraft available to European Union countries under the bloc's reserve of resources.
Greece is on alert this year after the country was wracked by several blazes on several fronts last year that raged for weeks, burning down homes and hundreds of thousands of acres of forest , following the worst heatwave in decades.
The country also has bitter memories of a 2018 blaze that tore through the north-eastern seaside town of Mati near Athens, killing 102 people in a matter of hours.
