Romania's specialist national forest firefighting module carried out its first operational mission in France overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, assisting the French authorities in tackling a vegetation and forest fire that broke out near the commune of Pouzols-Minervois in the Aude department in southern France.

'Romanian firefighters operated in their assigned sectors under the coordination of the French authorities, helping contain the fire and protect homes in threatened areas. The mission was carried out under particularly difficult conditions caused by strong winds, rugged terrain and very dense vegetation, factors that contributed to the rapid spread of the flames and the emergence of multiple fire fronts,' the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) said.

During the operation, the Romanian firefighters deployed three forest firefighting vehicles, one high-capacity fire engine with a 10,000-litre water tank, one 30,000-litre water tanker and one radio communications vehicle.

More than 500 firefighters took part in the operation, including 23 from the Romanian module.

After the mission was completed, the personnel and equipment returned to the operational base to restore operational readiness and prepare for possible further deployments.

'The activation and deployment of the specialist forest firefighting module is intended to carry out monitoring and firefighting missions in designated areas of France, as assigned by the French authorities,' the IGSU said.

From 1 to 31 July, the Department for Emergency Situations, through the IGSU, is taking part with a specialist national forest firefighting module in the European pre-positioning programme organised in France by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO).

The programme aims to strengthen the French authorities' capacity to respond to vegetation and forest fires, reduce emergency response times, improve the preparedness of intervention modules from participating states and enhance their interoperability.

According to the IGSU, the first contingent consists of 40 firefighters and includes three forest firefighting vehicles with 3,000-litre water tanks, one high-capacity fire engine with a 10,000-litre water tank, one 30,000-litre water tanker, one rapid response and command vehicle, one drone, one shortwave radio communications vehicle, one minibus and one logistics support container for forest firefighting operations.

A second contingent of 40 firefighters is scheduled to take over the mission on 16 July. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Alexandru Florea; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)