NATO Allies and partners help Georgia fight major forest fire
NATO Allies and partners have helped Georgia contain a major forest fire in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region. Georgia approached NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) for assistance on 23 September 2017, and the request was immediately circulated to NATO Allies and partners. On Sunday, Turkey deployed two firefighting helicopters and Azerbaijan also provided a firefighting helicopter. Today, the fire has been contained.
This assistance follows two similar Georgian requests to the EADRCC in August. By 28 August, two NATO Allies (Turkey and the United States) and three partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus) helped bring forest fires under control near Georgia’s Borjomi Municipality.
The EADRCC is NATO’s principal civil emergency response mechanism in the Euro-Atlantic area. It is active all year round, operational on a 24/7 basis, and involves NATO’s 29 Allies and all partner countries. The Centre coordinates both requests and offers of assistance mainly in case of natural and man-made disasters. More information is available on our topic "Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre"