site.btaSome 1,430 Personnel from Land Forces Have Been Fighting Fires Since July 12

Since July 12, more than 1,430 people and about 280 units of equipment from the military formations of the Land Forces have participated in extinguishing fires across the country, the Defence Ministry reported here on Monday.

Servicemen from the 3rd Mechanized Battalion of the 3rd Brigade Command - Blagoevgrad are once again extinguishing the large forest fire between the villages of Petrovo and Goleshovo near the border with North Macedonia in Slavyanka Mountain. Twenty-one servicemen with five units of specialized equipment have been trying to localize the fire since the early morning on Monday. 

 An Mi-17 helicopter also took part in the firefighting efforts on Sunday, carrying out 11 water drops during the day to extinguish the fire.

Bulgaria activated the European Union (EU) civil protection mechanism a few days ago and requested an aircraft to extinguish the fire on the Bulgarian-Greek border.