Greece's Armed Forces have declared their readiness to assist in the country's firefighting efforts following an extraordinary meeting held on Tuesday under the direction of Chief of the General Staff of National Defence General Konstantinos Floros.
General Floros held the meeting with the Chief of General Staff of the Hellenic Air Force (GAF), Rear Admiral Georgios Blioumis, the Chief of the General Staff of the Army (GES), Lieutenant General Charalambos Lalousis and the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy (GEN), Rear Admiral Stylianos Petrakis.
In all military units in Attica and Viotia have been instructed to create groups of 50 troops per unit, which will be allocated on a case-by-case basis and according to the needs that will arise. In addition, military units throughout Greece are setting up patrols using surveillance equipment and drones around military installations to locate outbreaks of fire in a timely manner.
Thus far, all available firefighting aircraft (Canadair and PZL) as well as helicopters provided for in the respective crisis management plans have been made available to the Civil Protection Authority.
