The Minister of National Defence Dimitris Avramopoulos along with the Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection Vasilis Kikilias paid a common visit to the 355th Tactical Transport Squadron, Elefsina.
The Ministers were briefed by the Commander of the Squadron on the preparation, the condition and the technical human resources to be made available for dealing with fires during the summer.
The two Ministers were accompanied by the Chief of HAFGS Lieutenant General (P) Evangelos Tournas and the Chief of the Hellenic Fire Service Lieutenant General (FS) Vasileios Papageorgiou.
After the briefing was completed Mr. Avramopoulos and Mr. Kikilias watched a demonstration of a CL-415 fire fighting aircraft. Afterwards, they addressed the personnel of the 355th Tactical Transport Squadron and the 383th Special Operations & Air Fire Fighting Squadron (383 MEEA).
The Ministers, among others, stated:
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: Today, along with my colleague, Minister of Citizen Protection, we were here to be briefed upon, as well as to send a message and I address mainly to the Direction and crews of our Fire fighting aircraft who everyday give a battle to protect the Greek people, their properties and our country’s environment under particularly difficult and adverse conditions.
During our briefing, we realized once again that despite the difficulties our Air Force confronts, they have recently managed, in an excellent cooperation with the Fire Service, to organize an exceptionally effective mechanism that can face fires which threaten our Homeland every year.
The cooperation between the two Ministries is particularly important and we have decided in common to promote initiatives to keep the existing material and flying assets properly maintained, to keep everything in operational readiness, but also to further supply our country with new aircraft which will respond fully and effectively to their mission in the future.
This is the duty of our State: to predict, to anticipate and to get prepared. On the other hand, however, the contribution of pilots, as well as of engineers is much more important for the great effort to keep flying assets always available and effective.
I say sometimes something that is the case for the Hellenic Armed Forces in general, that behind the machines, behind the weapon systems or the aircraft, the real power is the soul and strength of the Greek pilots and of all those who daily show self-sacrifice, self-denial, high professionalism and excellent training and become the great guarantors of the success of the mission(…).
Dear Minister, dear colleague and friend, Mr. Kikilias, I welcome you to this place. I am sure that from the previous briefing you realized something that you already knew before; that synergies which have been developed between the two Ministries, between the Hellenic Air Force and the Fire Service are successful.
Relations of solidarity and cooperation are all the more forged and this is particularly important for the general operation of the government itself, as well as of the institutions it monitors.
When you go back to your Ministry today, I want you to convey to the Fire Service and the personnel a cordial address as well as the acknowledgement and the respect for the great work they perform over all these years in defending our country, our environment, people’s human lives and property.
V. KIKILIAS: Dear Minister, dear Chief, gentlemen, we thank you very much for the opportunity we are given to visit this great place and watch closely the effort made, the synergies which have been agreed upon in the context of both the cooperation between the Fire Service and the Ministry of National Defence, and between the Ministry of Public Order and the Fire Service.
We deeply appreciate your contribution to our work. But it is a hard work. We all know the problems, however, after today’s visit, I dare to say that the soul of Greek people is in the Law Enforcement Agencies, is in engineers, pilots, in the Command of the Air Force, as it is also in the Hellenic Fire Service, which is fully deployed across Greece and ready to confront every possible challenge of a fire fighting period.
The Minister of National Defence Dimitris Avramopoulos and the Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection Vasilis Kikilias made also the following statements to the media, in which, among others, they stressed:
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: The work that is performed here is tremendous because it is conducted under particularly adverse conditions given the problems you more or less already know and which already existed.
Both ministries are however determined to move forward quickly so that the existent equipment, infrastructure and aircraft will be soon in operational readiness.
At the same time, however, we open a new chapter relevant to the procurement of new fire fighting aircraft to be made available and serve their mission along with the existent material.
As far as the current infrastructure is concerned, I would like to praise the significant work performed by the pilots who fulfill their mission with self-sacrifice; and on the other hand the work performed by the engineers who give a daily battle to maintain these aircraft in operational readiness. And believe me; this is not easy at all. (…)
This year Greece has created a fire fighting front, approximately 14 aircraft are already operating and they will increase to 16 in one week.
V. KIKILIAS: It is obvious and self-evident and you know it better, that problems exist mostly as far as equipment and flights are concerned. I would like, nevertheless, to congratulate the personnel of the Hellenic Air Force and the Hellenic Fire Service and volunteers of course, as well as people who monitor these affairs on behalf of the local government for the full deployment all over our country, our islands, in the big cities so that firstly we try to prevent them and then confront them.
We would like to thank particularly the political leadership of the Ministry of National Defence because it shows actively its support and solidarity. Of course, both ministries will consider the possibility to renew the fleet and become stronger in the future as far as this field is concerned.