Czechia sending firefighters and equipment to Greece to help combat new blazes

Czechia is sending a team of firefighters, medical professionals and firefighting equipment to Greece, following a call from the Mediterranean country to help tackle new fires which broke out on Sunday night and Monday. Interior Minister Vít Rakušan announced on X, formerly Twitter, that there will be two detachments deployed: a ground-based firefighting team and an aerial firefighting team with a Black Hawk helicopter. The Prague Medical Rescue Service, which will provide medical support to the firefighters, subsequently announced on the X network that it will also send its workers and equipment to Greece.

A spokesperson for the firefighters told the Czech News Agency that the ground team will leave for Greece on Tuesday at 1 pm and should arrive on Wednesday evening, while the aerial squad will depart later in the day. In total, the deployment will include about 70 personnel and over 30 pieces of equipment.

Greece has been plagued by large-scale wildfires since mid-July, mostly in the central and southern parts of the island of Rhodes and near the northeastern port city of Alexandroupoli. New fires broke out in the Boeotia region west of Athens on Sunday night, and on the second-largest Greek island of Euboea and in the Dadia Forest National Park in northeastern Greece on Monday afternoon.