Israel sent firefighting personnel to the southeastern European nation of Montenegro to assist with fighting a devastating forest fires there.
One logistic team arrived Wednesday evening and two more firefighting planes from Israel arrived Thursday morning.
assistance to fighting the devastating forest fires: 1st team arrived this evening, 2 planes arrive Thursday. pic.twitter.com/DiPBlc5CZ1
— Israel Foreign Min. (@IsraelMFA) July 19, 2017
NATO allies and other partners – among them Israel – sent aircraft and helicopters to help extinguish the massive blaze in the Lustica peninsula after Montenegro approached NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center (EADRCC) for assistance on Monday.
The request was immediately circulated to NATO allies and partners.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg thanked all those who sent help, saying, ““I welcome that Allies and partners came forward in a matter of hours to help Montenegro deal with its devastating forest fires. Montenegro is our newest Ally, having joined the NATO family just over a month ago. Our rapid response demonstrates that we stand with our Allies. This is what Euro-Atlantic solidarity is all about.”
The EADRCC is NATO’s principal civil emergency response mechanism in the Euro-Atlantic area. It is active and operational all year round on a 24/7 basis and involves NATO’s 29 Allies and all partner countries. The Center functions as a clearing-house system for coordinating both requests and offers of assistance, mainly in case of natural and man-made disasters.