Turkish firefighting aircraft joins efforts combating forest fire in Borjomi municipality

In a move marking international assistance to Georgian state bodies, a specialised Turkish firefighting aircraft has joined efforts to extinguish the forest fire in central-western Georgia’s Borjomi municipality that has been raging since Friday, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced on Wednesday.

The Ministry said the aircraft, equipped with an eight-ton tank for fire extinguishing material, was being utilised by its crew on sectors of the fire in the municipality, with two more specialised aircraft expected to join the work on Wednesday.

Efforts against the fire continued throughout the night of Tuesday and Wednesday, with the Interior Ministry noting fire sources of “varying complexity” were still present on the ground due to high temperature and wind. 

“Routes leading to almost all active fire zones have already been laid with heavy machinery and tractors. All relevant fire and rescue vehicles are mobilised on the ground [while] [d]rones continue to be used to monitor the fire”, the state body added.

Professionals of various departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure and Ministry of Environment and Agriculture are involved in combating the fire.