there were no significant steps made to implement it, but the large destructive earthquakes that struck Cyprus’ neighboring countries, Turkey and Greece in 1999, revealed the urgent need to create such a special unit for dealing with major disasters in the country. So, on 2 April 2002, the Cyprus Fire Service, established () or directly translated into Special Unit Dealing with Catastrophes, which is staffed by 50 firefighters from almost all districts of Cyprus. The unit is based in Kofinou due to the central location of this community, to allow easy access in the areas of Cyprus that are not occupied. Training For the success of the Unit’s objectives the specialised training of the men is required, so the men of the Unit received training both in Cyprus and abroad. Courses in Cyprus mainly involved climbing and rappelling on steep areas to rescue people, classes to handle polytraumatic patients and rescuing people that were involved in traffic accidents. Unit members were also trained in countries abroad. Specifically in the U.S. and Singapore the men were trained in earthquake rescue and in Sweden they were trained on how to deal with chemical materials. Number of elite members of the Unit also received specialised search and rescue Scuba diving training for sea, lakes and dams. The Unit recently acquired a specialised rescue team, for earthquake or open spaces rescue, with the use of trained tracking dogs. The training took place in Cyprus from qualified instructors and the last stage of the program took place on the premises of the equivalent agency in Greece. See also Cypriot National Guard Cyprus Air Forces Cyprus Civil Defence Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center Cyprus Navy Cyprus Police Cyprus Port & Marine Police List of fire departments References External links Official website Rescue agencies Fire Service Firefighting by country Fire departments