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Emergency Dept. Head Arafat: Romanian firefighters intervened very well in Greece, we have no injured
The 130 Romanian firefighters intervened "very well" to extinguish the fires in Greece, along with their Greek colleagues and those from other countries, head of the Department for Emergency Situations Raed Arafat said on Tuesday, informează Agerpres.
"We have no injured, we have no problems, they intervened very well, they rescued including animals, they rescued houses, people there evacuated early and it is very good and they are working very well with colleagues from Greece and other countries. Each team has a liaison officer from the Greek fire brigade, who liaises with the command centre, relays what the indications are," Arafat said.
He added that in Greece, where the situation is "challenging," there are currently about 500 firefighters from Europe, including 130 from Romania, who are working to put out fires.
"There are firefighters from several countries and we are part of the European Civil Protection intervention force, with the approval of the Government and the National Committee for Emergency Situations. In the first phase, we went for pre-positioning, as we will do in France, we will pre-position a team for a month. There was a team of 40 people, which started to get involved in interventions from the second half of July, after which we needed to supplement the forces. We supplemented in two tranches - a tranche of 40 people and another number of vehicles, after which we sent the last tranche of 50 people, with a number of vehicles," Arafat indicated.
Some of the Romanian firefighters have been working since Monday on the island of Rhodes, alongside forces from Slovakia and Greece. The other team remained in the Athens area, where the situation is a little better, and the possibility of relocation is being discussed, he explained.
"There are already about 500 firefighters coming from Europe, 130 of them from Romania, and there are about 100 vehicles coming from Europe and intervening, in addition to what has been made available to Greece, by air - planes, helicopters sent from other countries, including Turkey. It is a full-scale battle on several fronts with the fire at the moment and we hope that the situation will be brought under control, so that everyone can return home and be in a safe zone," detailed Arafat, at an Emergency Department event.
