The fire moved into the Prilep village of Caniste yesterday afternoon and caught several houses. According to Stojance Angelov, director of the Directorate for Protection and Rescue, several old and abandoned buildings burned or were affected, and it is possible the fire also reached one inhabited house. No residents or firefighters were injured.

That is the good news of the day. The rest is a number that is becoming routine: according to the Crisis Management Centre's tally up to 6pm, 22 open-air fires were registered nationwide - seven active, two under control and 13 extinguished.

One hour to the village

Prilep firefighters got the call around 13:30. The village is about 35 kilometres from Prilep, but the poor, winding road meant the crews needed roughly an hour to get there. The fire was reported through the 112 system at 15:58. By the time the crews arrived, the flames were already entering among the first houses and spreading in several directions.

There is no malice here - there is infrastructure. A road that eats an hour for 35 kilometres is not something you solve with firefighting speed, or with an appeal to the public.

Around twenty volunteers from the „Arhangel” volunteer fire brigade in Bitola also joined the effort on the ground.

Suspicion, not conclusion

Angelov voiced suspicion that the fire may have been started deliberately, pointing out that the flames entered from different directions and that the fire line was long. For now that is a suspicion, not an established cause - the distinction has to stay clear, because the cause of every outbreak is determined by an investigation.

The same day, Angelov published footage of a barbecue fire pit he found by the bank of the river Treska, most likely used the day before. In a week with these temperatures and these fronts, that leaves room for only one comment: the appeals are clearly not reaching everyone.

Veles - Zelenikovo: the other front

While attention was on Caniste, the situation on the stretch between Veles and Zelenikovo remained serious. The fire that started in the fields of the village of S'lp spread and moved towards Karabunjiste, Buzalkovo, Dobrino and Tisovica. Low vegetation is burning, but so is good oak and hornbeam forest.

Veles firefighters focused on protecting the villages of Dobrinovo and Tisovica - according to Angelov, crews are cutting through dense vegetation to create defence lines before the fire gets close to inhabited areas. Just a day earlier in Zelenikovo, a fire came within a few metres of the last houses.

Outbreaks also remained active near Morane, Vrtekica and Ramni Gaber in Studenicani, near Paligrad in Zelenikovo, and in Makedonski Brod near Vidus, Dragov Dol and Lokvica. One arm of the fire near Kopance pushed towards the village of Bojane in the municipality of Saraj - in the direction of Skopje.

Where there are aircraft, there are results

Near Dragov Dol the picture is better. After interventions with a police helicopter and three firefighting aircraft, the fire was significantly reduced and only one arm remains, on rocky and risky terrain. No inhabited area was threatened by it.

That is the comparison worth making: where there was air support all day, the fire was broken. Where there were only crews on the ground and an hour of road, the fire reached houses. The difference is not in the firefighters' effort.