At daybreak, 91 civil protection firemen from the Var area of southeast France departed Brignoles in several firefighting trucks for Greece, where a large fire is now blazing on the outskirts of Athens. These are some of the about 180 firemen and rescue personnel as well as the 55 trucks dispatched as reinforcements, as part of a European Union civil protection mechanism set up in 2001, announced on Monday by the outgoing French Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES