Georgia’s Emergency Service calls for “high caution” to prevent fires amid heat
The Georgian Emergency Management Service said on Wednesday that high temperatures were forecast in the country until next Monday. Photo: Defence Ministry press office
Tweet 
Share
The Emergency Management Service of Georgia on Wednesday called on the public to “act cautiously” to prevent fires breaking out in the country, citing the National Environment Agency as saying hot and dry weather, as well as strong winds, were forecast across the country until next Monday.
The warning comes on the heels of the still raging foreign fire in the central-western Borjomi municipality of Georgia, with more than 1,200 professionals combating the blaze that erupted last Friday using five helicopters and over 120 fire engines.
In an attempt to draw the public’s attention to prevention of further fires, the agency called for “high civic responsibility”, urging citizens to refrain from starting fires on agricultural lands, near forests or fields, leaving unattended sources of fire and polluting the environment with flammable household waste.
Four helicopters of the Georgian Border Police are used to combat fires in Borjomi municipality. Photo: Defence Ministry press office.
To react to possible incidents in a timely manner, the agency has also requested the public to use the hotline of the Public Safety Management Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on the emergency number 112, in case of noticing smoke in their vicinity.
In a move marking international assistance to Georgian state bodies, a specialised Turkish firefighting aircraft joined efforts to extinguish the forest fire in Borjomi municipality on Wednesday.
The Interior 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 later today.
Professionals of various departments of the domestic Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure and Ministry of Environment and Agriculture are also involved in combating the fire.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Wednesday lent support to his Georgian counterpart Ilia Darchiashvili in combating the forest fire in central-western Georgia’s 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.
More than 1,200 professionals from different state bodies, around 120 units of equipment and four border police helicopters are providing “maximum efforts” to put out the forest fire in Georgia’s central-western Borjomi municipality, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
Vakhtang Gomelauri, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, inspected the measures being taken against forest fire in central-western Georgia’s Borjomi municipality on Monday.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday named “sabotage” among possible causes of ongoing wildfires across the country.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Friday instructed the country’s Defence Forces to join professionals combating forest fires in the eastern Kvareli municipality, the Government Administration said.
The threat of fire spreading has been removed and the population is not in danger, Temur Mgebrishvili, the Head of the Emergency Situations Management Service said while commenting on the forest fire, that erupted near the village of Shilda in Kvareli municipality in eastern Kakheti region on Friday.
Sources of fire in the Nafetvrebi Forest in the vicinity of Tsavkisi and Tskneti, two holiday locations surrounding Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, have been eliminated following work of firefighting crews, the Emergency Management Service said on Monday.
Major General Giorgi Matiashvili, the Chief of the Georgian Defence Forces inspected the measures being taken against the forest fire in the central-western Georgia’s Borjomi municipality by military personnel on Thursday.
The National Forestry Agency on Wednesday called for caution among the public to prevent fires from breaking out due to the summer heatwave across the country.
The Emergency Management Service of Georgia on Tuesday warned the public about the rise in air temperature throughout the country over the coming days and noted the development would increase the risk of forest and field fires.