President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades said on Saturday that this is a very difficult day for Cyprus, stressing that the priority is to protect lives.
The President was referring to the devastating fire that started in the village of Arakapas and spread to many communities in the districts of Limassol and Larnaka.
“This is a very difficult day for Cyprus” he wrote in his twitter account, noting that the state mechanism is fully activated.
Our priority, the President noted, is to protect human lives and he thanked Greece and Israel for responding to send firefighting aircraft.
Meanwhile, in a written statement, Government Spokesman Marios Pelekanos said that due to the critical situation and the devastating fire in the districts of Limassol and Larnaka, it was decided to activate the Special National Plan “Hephaestus”.
He added that the competent interministerial Committee and the heads of the involved services, decided to transfer the crisis management centre to the area of Vavatsinia.
The fire began in the village of Arakapas and spread to the communities of Eptagonia, Oras, Melini, Sykopetra, Odou, Agioi Vavatsinias and Vavatsinias, he said.
The Spokesman noted that combating the fire is extremely difficult, due to the large area it spread.
He noted that appart from the ground forces, all aircraft of the Republic of Cyprus and the British Bases are in the fight to combat the fires, as well as aircraft and ground means of the National Guard.
Pelekanos said that the state has requested the assistance of other countries. He said that they expect during the day, the arrival of two Canadair type aircraft from Greece and two aircraft from Israel.
He said that reinforcement was requested with four more aircraft, through the European RescEU mechanism.
Pelekanos repeated the call made earlier by the Police to avoid unnecessary travel in the area of the fire.
“Our priority is the protection of human lives and then of property and forest land” he said.
Concluding, he noted that the President of the Republic is constantly informed about the situation.
