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Azerbaijani MESâ€™ firemen returned to Baku

18 August 2010 22:02 (UTC +04:00)

In the evening hours two fire helicopters of Azerbaijanâ€™s Ministry of Emergency Situations â€“ Mi-17-1B and Ka-32A and 19-man brigade, sent to Russiaâ€™s Ryazan region for participating in the operations on forest fire extinguishment, landed in Heydar Aliyev international airport.

Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations, Major-General Faig Tagizade and the Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Vladimr Dorokhin were amongst those who met the MES staffers.
The ambassador V. Dorokhin thanked MESâ€™ chief of aviation group, Colonel Ashraf Gasimov and all MES staffers who helped in fire extinguishment operations.

In the interview to the journalists A. Gasimov noted that the firemen of MES began the operation on extinguishing the fires on August 5 in Ryazan region, where the situation was most critical and during the operation Azerbaijani pilots displayed high selflessness. A. Gasimov said that during the operation in Ryazan region Azerbaijani pilots had 49 flights and transported more than 850 tons of water to extinguish the fires.

"Administration of Ryazan region and the Russian government appreciated very much Azerbaijani firefightersâ€™ work. The Governor of Ryazan region personally saw off us. Russian Prime Minister and Minister for Emergency Situations met us in Ryazan and expressed their gratitude", - said the representative of the Ministry of Emergencies.

A. Gasimov noted that a foreign firefighting staffs that partook in extinguishing fires had a meeting on 17 August in Moscow. Those who participated in the operations were awarded the medal "For emergency response." Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin thanked the Azerbaijani firemen and presented the gifts to three people.

According to A. Gasimova, Azerbaijani pilots worked from 7 am to 21 pm, if the weather conditions were favorable: "The smoke was main obstacle. We started flying once the smoke dispersed a little,"

The representative of the MES stressed that Azerbaijani staff prior to it took part in the operations on extinguishing fires in Russia, but this time the conditions were different and the staff had obtained a valuable experience.