A Croatian Air Force Canadair CL-415 plane with nine pilots and aircraft technicians on Wednesday returned to the Zemunik barracks from Greece where they were sent on August 6 to help put out wildfires of devastating proportions, the Croatian Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Defence Minister Mario Banozic said the Croatian crew did a flawless job and returned home from the humanitarian mission.

Croatia is happy to help its partner and friend, Greece, and providing humanitarian assistance abroad is one of the tasks of the Croatian Army, the minister said.

The Canadair captain and leader of the team who helped fight the the fire in Greece said this was a great experience with a humanitarian dimension which helped them develop their capabilities of providing assistance and putting out fires in other countries.

“We were absolutely prepared and ready to assist the Greek people in putting out the fire,” the pilot said and added that this was one of the biggest wildfire locations they worked on.

The Croatian crew logged 134 flights in 36 hours and five minutes. They dumped 732 tonnes of water and used 32,215 litres of fuel.

Apart from Croatian and Greek forces, help to combat unprecedented forest fires in Greece also came from France and Spain.