MINSK, 16 January (BelTA) – Turkey and Greece are intent on using the assistance of Belarusian Emergencies Ministry aerial units for fighting fires. The relevant negotiations are already in progress, BelTA learned from Belarusian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Vashchenko on 16 January.
The official said: “We've regularly worked to fight fires in Turkey for the last few years. Negotiations about next year's plans are in progress. The partners already indicate their desire to recruit our firefighters for dealing with fires in Turkey and Greece.”
Vladimir Vashchenko went on saying that the Emergencies Ministry had offered its firefighting services to Sweden, too. “They thanked us but turned down the offer for now,” said the official.
Belarusian firefighters provide assistance to other countries while keeping up readiness levels in their own country. “We will continue advancing cooperation and providing assistance. I should say that as soon as we are approached [with such requests], the head of state always decides in favor of providing the assistance,” noted Vladimir Vashchenko. “We constantly build up our capabilities, creating reserves in order to promptly deal with problems in our own country and, if possible, provide assistance to those in need abroad.”
The emergencies minister underlined the effectiveness of the Belarusian approach to fighting forest fires. “The Forestry Ministry was in charge of aviation in the past. They would submit reports about fires to their own units. If their resources were insufficient, they would call us,” reminded Vladimir Vashchenko. “Now aerial units of the Emergencies Ministry perform monitoring functions. Once a fire is spotted, we dispatch firefighters right away while notifying forestry enterprises at the same time.”
Vladimir Vashchenko added that the deployment of Emergencies Ministry units is covered by the state budget. The cost is later reimbursed by the Forestry Ministry. “With this in mind the forestry industry puts efforts into the prevention and early detection of forest fires. They set up surveillance cameras, trail cameras. They've restored observation towers and work hard to clean forests. In other words, they now pay more attention to prevention work to avoid spending heavily on fighting fires later on,” noted the emergencies minister. “We tightly interact with the Forestry Ministry. Together we work out all kinds of approaches and can state that the early detection and rapid response system produces results. The state has done everything on its part. Our citizens now have to understand that nature should not be used for pleasure only, that they have to keep it in good order for themselves and their descendants.”
