Czech firefighters will assist efforts to extinguish large forest fires in North Macedonia, as a team of experts are travelling there today in a Black Hawk helicopter with a helicopter bucket, said Klara Ochmanova, spokeswoman for the General Directorate of the Czech Fire and Rescue Service (HZS).
Czech firefighters are already helping their counterparts in Greece and Bulgaria, which border North Macedonia.
The helicopter took off at 10am from Melnik, Central Bohemia, and is scheduled to arrive in the Macedonian capital of Skopje this evening. “On board is a three-member team of members of the Czech Fire Brigade specialized in aerial firefighting and rescue work, as well as a four-member crew of pilots and technicians,” said Ochmanova.
“The weather conditions that currently prevail in the Czech Republic mean that the risk of large-scale natural fires in the Czech Republic is now low. We can therefore offer a helping hand where the situation is much more serious,” said HZS director Vladimir Vlcek. “If the situation worsens [in the Czech Republic], we would of course pull back our capacities, but the priority always remains the protection of the Czech population,” he added.
Two Black Hawk helicopters from a private operator are available for aerial firefighting in the Czech Republic during the risk season, whose operation is roughly 75% financed by the rescEU-transition grant, with the remainder of the cost covered by the state. One of the Czech Black Hawks has been deployed in Bulgaria since 28 July, where it has been intervening in a large-scale wildfire in the Strumjani area, along with other European aircraft.
On 14 July, an equipped team of 22 Czech firefighters went to help with fires in Greece. They are intervening in various locations and have travelled hundreds of kilometres. They are expected to be deployed in Greece until about mid-August.
