VILNIUS -  France’s embassy in Lithuania thanked Lithuania for its assistance in fighting wildfires in the Bordeaux and Marseille regions.

"France sincerely thanks Lithuania for its solidarity and assistance in extinguishing the fires. We are very grateful to the firefighters who risked their lives to protect ours," the embassy said.

The embassy said that in the face of natural disasters and the challenges posed by global warming, such mutual assistance demonstrates the importance of international and European cooperation through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism.

Lithuania deployed 40 officers from the State Fire and Rescue Service and nine specialised vehicles to France. The Lithuanian firefighters worked alongside French rescue services for 13 days in the Bordeaux and Marseille regions. Their efforts contributed to protecting residents and the environment and supported the work of French agencies.

The Lithuanian rescue team was dispatched to France through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism.

According to Saulius Tamulevicius, deputy director of the Fire and Rescue Department, this was the sixth international aid mission involving Lithuanian firefighters since 2010.

Some of the officers deployed to France had recently participated in missions to Venezuela and Turkey following devastating earthquakes in those countries.

As French firefighters battled forest fires in the Gironde region that forced the evacuation of 220,000 people, the blazes destroyed more than 200 homes and devastated 42,000 hectares of land.