Nicosia, 21 August 2024 (MIA) – We left North Macedonia with positive feelings, we had excellent cooperation and we’re glad we were able to help and be useful to the people, said Andreas Antoniou, head and coordinator of the Cyprus mission engaged in extinguishing the fires in the country, expressing hopes that the positive atmosphere will contribute to improving the relations between the two countries, MIA’s Athens correspondent reports. 

Two Air Tractor aircrafts with four crew members and five people for land support from Cyprus were deployed to North Macedonia from August 7 until August 14 to help put out fires as part of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

Speaking to Cyprus News Agency (CNA) about the experiences of the Cypriot firemen on different locations across the country, Antoniou said “climate change has left North Macedonia unprepared to deal with the outbreak of fires”, stressing that his country’s assistance was appreciated.

“We felt they appreciated our efforts. We are glad we could help and we’re glad we were useful to the people,” stated Antoniou saying he hoped the mission and the created positive atmosphere will contribute to boosting the relations between Cyprus and North Macedonia. 

The fact, he said, we’d met people who immensely appreciated our contribution was satisfying encouraging the Cyprus mission. Antoniou then mentions an example in which a taxi driver had driven Cyprus crew members for free after they told him they were in North Macedonia to join firefighting operations.

As CNA noted that Cyprus’ engagement in battling the fires was widely reported by the media in North Macedonia, Antoniou recalled that in the middle of his mission’s operation, the Interior Minister had paid them a visit, whereas the Crisis Management Center head Stojanche Angelov met with them in the beginning and the end of the mission handing honorary diplomas to the crew members for their firefighting efforts.

Speaking to CNA, the head of the mission also mentions the long road from Cyprus to Skopje, saying that once they had received the message from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism on August 6, the mission started preparations with the crew members taking off for North Macedonia the next day and arriving in Skopje on August 8 after midnight. “Despite the long trip, we were prepared to intervene with the break of dawn,” he recalled. 

Antoniou went on saying the mission kicked off in two phases. The two crafts took off initially with one of them transporting the equipment because of no space left and the pilot and one crew member were in the second. In the second phase, the remaining six crew members travelled to Skopje with commercial flights via Athens and Zagreb.

We intervened in vast remote areas

On the wildfires in North Macedonia, Antoniou said they’d seen “properties turning into ashes” by the largescale fires, adding they intervened in areas where the flames got close to properties posing a risk to the residents.

“The first day we were told there were 38 fires in a country that is double the size of Cyprus,” he stated adding the fires caused notable environmental disaster affecting the lives of residents. 

Antoniou said on the first day in the country the Cyrus mission put out a fire getting near a monastery and on the day before last, they intervened in a park where fires had been burning for 23 days, whereas on the last day in the country, the mission was deployed to extinguish two outbreaks, east of Skopje near the border with Bulgaria and in the vicinity with Albania. The two fronts, according to him, were near residential places with an increasing risk of the fires spreading and becoming fatal.

The Cypriot firemen operated in an area that is very different from the one in their country.

“It was a vast terrain, rugged, which made it very hard for the land forces to operate. The only solution that could have been offered was aerial operation,” he added. 

“It’s devastating seeing forests and nature being destroyed due to our negligence and/or deliberate intention. We all have to understand that by protecting the environment we live in, we are also protecting our lives,” noted Antoniou.

In North Macedonia, he continued, firefighting units lack the expertise the Cyprus Forestry Department has, developing it over the years in extinguishing fires both on land and from the air.

In parallel, Antonious said the Cyprus firemen had tried to find firefighting foam and a material that prevents the flames from spreading, which would have increased the firefighting efficiency, but to no avail.

Cyprus Forestry Department, according to him, has experience and knowledge in fighting fires for over a century. As regards the aerial firefighting efforts, the department’s aerial unit “could be one of the best such units in the world.” 

The two pilots engaged in the mission in North Macedonia are from Australia and the engineer is from New Zealand. 

Video by CNA