Photo taken on Oct. 12, 2021 shows the city of Athens in Greece.Photo:Xinhua

A group of 28 Romanian firefighters was welcomed by Greek authorities in Athens on Saturday during the launch of a European pilot program for forest protection against fire in the summer of 2022, according to the Greek national news agency AMNA.

Under the program, a total of 200 firefighters from six countries across Europe (Bulgaria, France, Germany, Romania, Norway and Finland) will be positioned in Greece in July and August 2022, according to an e-mailed press release from the Ministry for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection.

They will assist in fire protection efforts and exchange know-how with their Greek colleagues. 

The program is being implemented through the European Civil Protection Mechanism in the wake of the destructive wildfires that swept Greece in 2021. 

The fires scorched more than 100,000 hectares of forests and farmland and damaged nearly 2,000 houses and businesses.

Romanian firefighters also participated in efforts to extinguish these fires in Greece in 2021.

"We thank you for coming to our country in a difficult summer to give a helping hand and demonstrate with action that European solidarity is not a theoretical idea, but tangible," Greece's Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Christos Stylianides told the crowd at an event held at the Hellenic Fire Academy in Athens on Saturday. 

Greece suffers from wildfires every summer due to high temperatures, dry conditions and arsonists. 

In 2018, 102 people died in the coastal resort of Mati, near Athens, in Greece's worst-ever fire disaster.

Xinhua