Tuesday, August 22 2017 19:55

ArmInfo. The Ministry of Emergency Measures of Armenia sent 57 of its employees to help  Georgia in putting out a fire in the Borjomi Gorge.

As the press service of the Emergencies Ministry of Armenia told  ArmInfo, Georgia through the Coordination Center Virtual OSOCC of the  United Nations International Energy Community (UN) applied to the  international community for help in extinguishing a fire in the  Borjomi Gorge. "On the instructions of the President of Armenia and  the corresponding instructions of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of  Emergency Situations of Armenia took appropriate measures to promptly  respond to the appeal of the Georgian side. On August 22 at 16:30  from the Ministry to Georgia was sent a column of the Ministry of  Emergency Situations of Armenia consisting of 8 rescue and fire  fighting vehicles and one rescue vehicle, one car of the medical  center for disasters and a mobile control point (57 in all), which on  the spot will serve as the headquarters for the operational  Coordinating actions," the ministry said.

Earlier, Georgian Prime Minister Georgy Kvirikashvili said that  Armenia is also involved in the work to eliminate the fire in the  Borjomi Gorge. "We received very important aid from Azerbaijan. By  the end of the day, a very large firefight plane from Turkey will  arrive, the decision was made by the Turkish Prime Minister, despite  the fact that they themselves have problems with this. I also want to  say that a number of crews from Armenia are also on the road,"  Kvirikashvili said.

Information on large-scale forest fires in the Borjomi-Kharagauli  Park was received on August 20, at about 2:30 pm. Because of the  strong wind, the fire quickly spread to the territory of more than 5  hectares. Fire equipment was sent to the area of the village,  however, due to the difficult terrain, it was not possible to  approach the fires for a long time. The helicopter of the border  police of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs was involved in  extinguishing the fire. At the request of the Georgian authorities,  on August 21, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered to send a  helicopter to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Georgia. In the  extinguishing of the fire, a fire aircraft from Turkey also  participates. It also became known that Georgia refused from the  assistance offered by Russia. According to the latest data, the fire  area covers more than 15 hectares.