Romanian firefighters deployed to France on Thursday carried out operations to eliminate hazards and secure areas where accumulations of combustible material, active fire hotspots or reignitions had been identified, as part of their mission to support the French authorities in tackling wildfires and forest fires.

The Romanian crews operated in several fire-affected sectors, carrying out monitoring activities and mitigating the effects of the fires. Their tasks included inspecting burnt areas, identifying hidden hotspots, cooling high-temperature zones, extinguishing any reignitions and securing assigned sectors to prevent the spread of fires to unaffected areas, the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) said in a press release.

The operations were conducted under the coordination of the French authorities, in accordance with the intervention plan established for the affected areas. French emergency services were responsible for allocating operational sectors, coordinating field activities and continuously monitoring the affected perimeters.

On Thursday, the Romanian specialised forest firefighting module, RO GFFF-V, was visited by Leo Martinon, liaison officer of the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), who is deployed in France in response to the vegetation fires affecting the region.

The ERCC representative met members of the Romanian module and observed their field operations.

The module's team leader and the Romanian liaison officer briefed him on the operational situation, the support provided to the French authorities and the integration of the Romanian crews into the joint intervention framework.

According to the weather forecast, the risk of vegetation and forest fires will remain significant across southern France on Friday.

'In the Pyrenees-Orientales department, where the Romanian module is deployed, the wildfire risk is moderate, corresponding to the yellow alert level. However, high and very high fire risk levels are forecast in other departments in southern France, and the situation continues to be closely monitored,' the press release said.

Romanian firefighters remain ready to intervene under the coordination of their French counterparts whenever the situation requires, contributing to the strengthening of Europe's collective response to wildfires and helping protect communities and the environment, IGSU added. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Alexandru Florea; EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)