Mazda Donates BT-50 Fire-Unit Pickups to Greece

Mazda Europe has announced it will donate 35 Mazda BT-50 pickups outfitted as Quick-Response Fire to the Greek Ministry of Interior and Relief Agency for deployment in the communities that were devastated by massive fires this past summer. The 2007 Greek fires broke out in several areas this summer destroying some 2,700 square kilometres (670,000 acres) of land, forest and houses. From the end of June 2007 to early September 2007, over 3,000 forest fires were recorded across the nation resulting in 68 confirmed fatalities as of September 21.

Mazda’s Greek distributor, ELMA S.A., will retrofit the new pick-ups with a fire-fighting superstructure designed especially for mounting on light commercial vehicles. It includes a steel frame, an 800 litre tank of water, a high-pressure centrifugal pump, 25-metre hoses with special nozzles and other fire-fighting equipment. The vehicles will probably be donated to communities in the areas of Ilia and Messinia (Peloponese), Southern Evia (Island of Evia), Halkidiki (northern Greece), Ioannina and Corfu (western Greece - Ionian islands), which were hit the hardest. Handover of the retrofitted vehicles is expected to commence in spring 2008.