EU lets Georgia use its satellite recordings to observe Borjomi forest fire
Tweet 
Share
The European Union (EU) has activated its Copernicus program to monitor the fire in Borjomi Gorge and it will let Georgia access the satellite footage.
This afternoon Chargé d'Affaires of the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia Carlo Natale has met with Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. He said that Georgia will get the forest maps created by the earth observation satellites as soon as today.
"We are impressed by what we have seen at site. We witnessed the efforts that were made in order to handle the fire during these several days”, he said.
He said that the EU filmed the Borjomi fire using the Copernicus program, which is a good tool to observe the blaze spreading area and locate fire pockets.
Copernicus is the European system for monitoring the Earth and is coordinated and managed by the European Commission.
The development of the observation infrastructure is performed under the aegis of the European Space Agency for the space component and by the European Environment Agency and EU countries for the in situ component.
It consists of a complex set of systems which collect data from multiple sources: earth observation satellites and in situ sensors such as ground stations, airborne sensors, and sea-borne sensors. It processes this data and provides users with reliable and up-to-date information through a set of services related to environmental and security issues.
Looking ahead, Natale said that once the fire is handled, the EU is ready to send its experts to Georgia and help restore and preserve Borjomi forests.
The Georgian Armed Forces have joined firefighting efforts in Georgia’s Borjomi Gorge where a massive forest fire broke out five days ago and is still burning.
Georgian citizens, business and banking sector representatives are teaming up to restore the forest burnt following the recent devastating wildfire in the Borjomi Gorge, with several social campaigns already in full swing.
As of now, all the main fire spots have been localised, but there are areas where the threat of fire spreading has not been removed, Georgia’s Environment Ministry said this morning.
Six helicopters and one large firefighting aircraft have resumed extinguishing work at 6 a.m. this morning in Georgia’s Borjomi Gorge where a wildfire broke out four days ago.
A massive forest fire that broke out a week ago in Georgia’s Borjomi Gorge has been extinguished, but the special headquarters that was set up upon the Prime Minister’s order to handle the disaster remains in the gorge to follow the developments.
Azerbaijan has sent its helicopters to help Georgia fight with the wildfire at a new section of the forest near Tsagveri resort in south-central Georgia, Zurab Alavidze Georgian Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure said.
Stargazers in Georgia are gearing up to watch and record a string of "satellite train" in the night sky, as the constellation of the SpaceX Starlink hardware is expected to cross the space on Monday evening.