In an unusual rescue operation, twelve firefighters from Central Franconia had to be rescued in Greece.
A colleague from home helped out.
Nuremberg / Thasos - When helpers need help themselves.
This could be the title of the story of a crazy rescue operation in Greece.
During a private hiking holiday, twelve firefighters from Middle Franconia got lost on the Greek island of Thasos.
They were ultimately helped by a colleague in Nuremberg *, around 1,500 kilometers away.
Firefighters get lost on Thasos and get help from Germany
Twelve of them traveled from Middle Franconia for a hiking holiday to Thasos.
On a tour on Tuesday (July 27th) they discovered that on the one hand they were lost and on the other hand that two of their colleagues had been missing for some time.
The friends also didn't have enough drinking water with them.
So they decided to get help.
They called the international emergency number 112 and ended up with a local helper.
However, communication turned out to be difficult.
The man did not understand his colleagues from Germany.
So the Floriansjünger came up with the idea to call the Integrated Control Center * (ILS) in Nuremberg, reports the ILS on Wednesday.
There a colleague who was born in Greece answered the phone by chance.
An even greater coincidence was that the man often spent his youth on Thasos and therefore knew his way around there well.
50 helpers break out to help their German comrades
The ILS employee was able to locate the men using GPS and alerted the fire brigade on Thasos - whose number he had already saved in his cell phone.
They would actually have set off with a rescue helicopter immediately.
But all twelve helicopters were used to help with a forest fire in the region.
Therefore, more than 50 helpers set out on foot to look for the Germans.
After about five hours, the Greek helpers found the exhausted hikers and the two missing men.
All of them were brought to the valley unharmed and from there they were driven back to their hotel.
Nobody was seriously injured in the action.
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