The flames were already in the yards. The fire had reached the very walls of the houses in Bajkovo, and the church of „St. Peter and Paul" was a step from disaster. That today in that village there are still roofs and one church instead of ash - that isn't down to luck, but to people who spent the whole day fighting the blaze on several fronts at once.

Yesterday was among the hardest days for Strumica's firefighters. Not one fire, but several - in the fields around Bajkovo, Mokrievo, Petralinci and Ednokukevo. Woodland burned, low vegetation, dry grass, stubble fields. Farm machinery burned too, among other things a straw-baling machine. And when the same crew has to race from village to village, every minute of delay can mean a house lost.

The most critical situation was in Bajkovo, on the slopes of Ogražden. The fire was spotted in the afternoon and headed straight for the church of „St. Peter and Paul". Strumica's firefighters joined the defence, along with volunteers from the „Ris" volunteer society and local residents, and because of the danger of it spreading, two farm tractors were also requested from the Directorate for Protection and Rescue.

„Through enormous effort, self-sacrifice and a timely intervention, the firefighters managed to save several houses, as well as the church, even though the fire had already reached the buildings themselves," the Territorial Fire Unit of Strumica announced. With that, greater material damage was prevented - a sentence that sounds bureaucratic, but behind it stands a family that will sleep under its own roof.

The appeal that followed is a familiar one, but no less important for that: don't burn stubble, waste and dry vegetation, and report every fire you spot at once. „Fire doesn't forgive, but with shared responsibility we can prevent catastrophic consequences," the firefighters said. The question is how many of these fires would have happened at all if that responsibility had existed before the flames went up, and not after the siren sounds.