Cypriot firefighting mission to remain in Greece at least for another two days

The Cypriot mission assisting firefighters battling wildfires in Greece will remain there at least until Thursday, the member of the Cypriot mission and Senior Forestry Officer, Stavros Mouchlis, said on Tuesday.

For now, it is unknown when they will return, the forestry department officer told CNA.

Asked about the mission’s activity on Wednesday, Mouchlis said that “our day was relatively quiet. We had a fire between Tatoi-Ekali, it was dealt with successfully.”

The mission is made up by two aircraft and a ground unit.

He added that at the moment they have no information regarding a possible relocation of the mission to another front, for example in Rhodes, where fires have been burning for days.

“We are willing, we talked to the Fire Department. We told them that we are willing to operate anywhere where there is a possibility of supplying our aircraft from the ground. We receive instructions from the Operations’ Centre and act under their orders”, he said.

President Nikos Christodoulides, decided to send a mission to aid with the forest fires in Greece, via the Civil Protection Mechanism of the European Union. The assistance consists of two Air Tractor type airplanes of the Forest Department, with a crew of four and ground support staff of seven.

The aviation unit of the Forestry Department had joined rescEU from mid-June 2023.