The Swiss Army is helping Greece to fight forest fires in the border area with Bulgaria and Turkey. On Saturday morning, three Super Puma helicopters took off from Locarno, in southern canton Ticino, towards Greece.
The Federal Department of Defence published a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that over 20 members of the Swiss armed forces flew on board the large helicopters to the southeastern European country. They are fire-fighting specialists.
The Dadia national park in eastern Greece has been burning for almost two weeks. According to some estimates from Brussels, this is the largest forest fire ever recorded in the European Union (EU). Since mid-August 20 people have died in the fires near the Turkish border.
Numerous fire-fighting planes from EU countries, as well as hundreds of firefighters and volunteers are on the job. The biggest problem is that the fires are now raging in impassable terrain and the flames can be fought almost exclusively from the air, a fire brigade officer told Greek radio last Wednesday.