Greece gets European assistance for summer wildfire season

By DEMETRIS NELLAS
Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The first of the more than 200 firefighters from six European countries that will help their Greek colleagues in fighting wildfires arrived in Athens. The 28 Romanian firefighters were welcomed Saturday by Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides and the leadership of Greece’s Fire Service. A Bulgarian contingent has arrived in central Greece, while teams from France, Finland, Germany and Norway are expected later in July and in August. They are part of a pilot European Union “prepositioning” program to make Europe-wide assistance in firefighting efforts permanent. Firefighting teams from other countries had also helped Greece deal with devastating wildfires in August 2021.