Iranian Armed Forces launches 1st firefighting op. in Turkey

According to the Public Relations Department of the Iranian Ministry of Defense, Pilot Nouri Al-e Agha, Head of the Air Fire Control and Logistics Center of the Ministry of Defense reported the presence of a firefighting aircraft of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the city of Muğla in southern Turkey and first firefighting operation with a unique capacity of 40 tons of water.

He went on to say that a firefighting team and a firefighting aircraft designed by young Iranian experts with a capacity of 40 tons of water arrived in the city of Muğla this evening.

The pilot pointed to the increase of wildfire followed by regional winds and spread of fire to other areas and said, "With the coordination made in this regard, we hope to send two more water-spraying helicopters in the next day to the area in order to help extinguish more areas and prevent the fire from progressing."

The quality of presence of Iranian firefighting team distinguishes the activity from other teams sent from neighboring countries and this is the pride and honor for the Islamic Republic of Iran, he added.

The forest fires erupted over the last few days in the southern provinces of Mersin, Osmaniye, Adana, Antalya, Kahramanmaras in Turkey.

It should be noted that forest fires first erupted on Wednesday in Antalya’s Manavgat district and spread over a large area.