80 Romanian firefighters to assist France in extinguishing forest fires over summer

Eighty firefighters from Romania, along with eight fire trucks, will participate in July in a pre-positioning program for forces specialized in extinguishing forest fires. The mission will have them go to France.

The assistance program is funded by the EU as a support measure for French communities after the fires registered in recent years. The program aims to reduce response time in the event of forest fires, improve the preparation of intervention modules belonging to member states, and enhance interoperability between the participating forces.

A first contingent of 40 firefighters from Romania’s Department for Emergency Situations departed for France on Friday, June 28, according to IGSU.

The activation and operationalization of the specialized forest fire extinguishing module is carried out for the execution of specific missions of monitoring and extinguishing outbreaks on French territory, in locations designated by French partners.

The first contingent - 40 firefighters and 8 technical means (3 forest fire trucks (3000 liters), 1 tanker (30,000 liters), 1 high-capacity fire truck (10,000 liters), 2 first intervention and command vehicles, and 1 minibus) - started their journey on Friday, departing Arad for the French locality of Sainte-Marie-la-Mer, in southern France.

According to IGSU, the supplementation of equipment and intervention personnel will be made based on the dynamics of the situations recorded in the field at the request of the French authorities through the European Civil Protection Mechanism. Personnel rotation will take place on July 16, with another 40 firefighters replacing the current personnel.

In the summer of 2023, through the activation of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, the Romanian Government decided to provide emergency external humanitarian aid in support of French authorities and the protection of affected communities. As such, from July 30 to September 2, 2023, a specialized intervention module in extinguishing forest fires was deployed in France to support missions in areas heavily affected by fires.

(Photo source: Departamentul pentru Situaţii de Urgenţă on Facebook)