site.btaFirst Rotating Group of Bulgarian Firefighters Leaves for Greece

The first rotating group of 20 Bulgarian firefighters left for Greece on Sunday to help manage forest blazes. The Head of the Directorate General for Fire Safety and Civil Protection, Chief Commissioner Alexander Dzhartov, gave the group an official send-off in Blagoevgrad.

Dzhartov told journalists that this is the third year that Bulgaria is taking part in a European Commission initiative for early deployment of firefighters to countries prone to higher levels of risk of wildfires. He said the Bulgarians will be stationed at Thessaloniki Airport. They will remain in Greece until the middle of July, when they will be replaced by another 20-strong force from Bulgaria.

The first group's main job in Greece will be prevention, although wildfires have already started there. The unit comprises firefighters from Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil, Lovech, Dobrich and Sofia and two representatives of Sofia Municipality. They are taking along two fire engines and a pickup truck which was bought last year with money from the European Commission, Dzhartov said.

He noted that Bulgarian firefighters have always been praised for their work in Greece. Last year, he said, the Bulgarians worked together with Greek colleagues to extinguish the Alexandroupolis fire, arguably the largest one in Europe, which means that the Greeks trust Bulgarian officers.