Bulgarian firefighters leave for Greece to help collegaues fight forest fires

Bulgarian firefighters leave for Greece today, October 2, to help their colleagues in the fight against fires, the Ministry of Interior said. The Bulgarian module for ground extinguishing of forest fires with vehicles will join with 51 firefighters and 11 units of equipment to battle the fire in our southern neighbour. The assistance is within the framework of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, which activated in Greece.

The module is composed of firefighters from the General Directorate of the Fire Brigade, the Sofia Directorate and the regional directorates "Fire Safety and Population Protection" in Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Plovdiv and Sliven.

Hundreds of firefighters and volunteers in southern Greece have been battling for the third day a major forest fire near the town of Corinth, which killed two people and devastated a vast forest area.

The fire service in the region said that more than 400 firefighters, assisted by 20 water-bombing aircraft, were engaged in battling the blaze in the mountains of Corinthia in the northern Peloponnese.