Georgia asks international help to combat forest fire

The Georgian authorities have appealed to several states for help in extinguishing the fire in the area of the Abastumani resort. Today, Ukraine and Turkey have sent aircraft to help Georgia.

The fire near the resort of Abastumani began on August 29. The fire occurred about seven or eight kilometres from the resort. According to the preliminary information, the area of the fire is five hectares.

"Rescuers have used bulldozers and managed to cut a road four or five kilometres long in order to get closer to the fire. The rescue teams created artificial reservoirs to enable aircrafts to take water from them. Already 1000 people are involved in extinguishing the fire," reported Giorgi Mgebrishvili, Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs, on the air of the "Rustavi 2" TV Channel.

Georgia has sent requests to several countries for assistance.

According to Giorgi Mgebrishvili, Ukraine sent to Georgia an An-32P aircraft with capacity of 8 tons. Besides, two helicopters and one aircraft are also sent to Georgia from Turkey, the "Georgia Online" reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.