Croatian firefighter crews fly in “EU Prometheus 14”
The crews of the Firefighter Squadron of the 93rd Air Base performed their first flights in the “EU Prometheus 14” Civil Protecton Exercise taking place in Greece from 31 May – 4 June.
The flights involved simulated water drops over the fire sites. The participating countries included Greece as host, Croatia, Cyprus, Italy and Lithuania. The Exercise scenario features large-scale fires endangering settled and industrial areas in Greece and exceeding the national capacities, prompting the activation of the EU Civil Protection mechanism and assistance from other countries.
The Head of the aerial firefighter module, Captain Tomislav Vacenovski underlined the flying in 3-Canadair formation, with the Greek aircraft leading two Croatian and two Italian ones. “We successfully completed all morning and afternoon missions; four out of seven water drops were officially valued”.
The aim of the Exercise is to test and develop international assistance procedures, the EU common civil protection defence modules and assess the assistance co-ordination through the Emergency Response Centre in Brussels.
Croatia has been represented by the Firefighter Squadron (aerial module) and 16 members of the National Search and Rescue Directorate, equipped with vehicles and firefighting equipment (land module).