Millions of euros for helicopters maintenance but wildfires in Albania are extinguished with picks, shovels and Greek planes

The fire situation in the summer was one of the most alarming, with outbreaks in all areas. Currently, the Air Force Command does not have any air vehicle to use against fires, although millions of euros have been spent to buy and maintain them, according to statistics. However, the only “military” forces to put out the fires have been soldiers with picks and shovels.

Journalists of the investigative show “Fiks Fare” on Top Channel have been following the problem of the fire in the area of Pishë Poros in Fier in central Albania, where an area of 500 hectares of pines by the Adriatic Sea has burned. “Firefighters, Civil Emergencies and Protected Areas forces are here and are trying to put out the fires with circumstantial means. Meanwhile, there was an intervention from the air by several planes from Greece”, were the media reports at that time.

Fiks Fare interviewed a military representative, who said that there were only 2 days of Greek planes interventions in the fight against fires. “They were supplied in Corfu. Here only those planes extinguished the fire. Our helicopter did nothing,” he said. The firefighters in Fier were in a pickup truck with a small water tank. The moment the journalistst were there, the engine’s water pump broke! “We have been here for 12 days, there are still fires, fallen trees that are burning. Here are the firefighters, the army. There were two days of aerial intervention, several airdrops were made to bring the flames under control. They were Greek planes,’ the officer said.

In the absence of Albanian means, several planes from Greece went to Pishë Poro to try to put out the fires. At that time, the Director of Civil Emergencies, Haki Çako, said that the last Albanian helicopter is under repair due to the hours in flight. Meanwhile, the helicopters taken from the Albanian air fleet are in the army barns.

Helicopter barns have cost millions of euros. According to the documents available to the editors of Fiks Fare, the Ministry of Defense has made a tender in recent months with the object “construction of a hangar for helicopters, at the Farka Air Base” in Tirana. The value of this tender was 407 million lek, or about 4 million euros. However, the ministry has also made a tender “purchase of JET A-1 fuel for aircraft” for the needs of the Air Force Command. The fund of this tender is 272 million ALL.

Currently, the Albanian air fleet is supposed to have 7 helicopters. 4 of them are of year of production 2013, 2 of 1985 and 1 helicopter from 1972. Their total value is 6.4 billion ALL! The 4 newest, 3 Kugar and 1 EC 135 were purchased in 2013, with a contract of the Albanian government and the company “Eurocopter”. Their price was a full 78.6 million euros. The contract was for 5 Cougar helicopters, but one of them crashed in France and the contract was changed.

But, after this moment, it was said that the air vehicles are necessary to be maintained so in 2021 the Ministry of Defense spent 1.2 million euros to repair defects in three of the four “Cougar” helicopters.

At that time, in the hot summer of 2021, Albania had only one “Cougar” helicopter on standby to deal with the fire emergency. “The poor operational condition of the Armed Forces’ helicopters has created a gap in the performance of fire-fighting operations,” it was then said in the report of the SSC.

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