site.btaBulgarian Servicemen Put on Standby to Interfere in Event of Greece Wildfire Spreading into Bulgaria

Bulgarian servicemen from the Third Brigade Command remain on standby to help fight a Greece forest fire burning close to the border with Bulgaria, in case it spreads into Bulgarian territory, the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. A new group of 24 servicemen with seven units of specialized equipment from the Third Mechanized Brigade of Blagoevgrad, is near the border between the villages of Petrovo and Goleshovo. 

According to the Interior Ministry, there is no risk of the fire spreading from Greece into Bulgaria. On the Bulgarian side, teams and equipment have been deployed in order to react quickly if needed. Greece continues to fight the flames from the air.

Firefighters, foresters and servicemen are cleaning vegetation on a strip on the Bulgarian side to prevent the fire from jumping over, Katuntsi State Forestry Director engineer Plamen Poyukov told BTA. At the moment the fire is not aggressive, is not spreading but has not yet been extinguished, he added. 

The caretaker Minister of Interior Kalin Stoyanov told journalists on Tuesday that the situation with the fire on the [Bulgaria-Greece] border is under control. If the fire goes towards Bulgaria, it will not reach the territory of the country in the next two days, he added. 

Stoyanov said that there is a mine field on Bulgarian territory near the fire.