Half past eight in the morning, a spot called "Mala Zecka" below the Tetovo village of Gajre. R.S. (55) is clearing dry grass and low scrub on his own land. He lights a fire. The fire gets out of control and spreads across a larger area. At 9:30 officers from the Popova Sapka police station detain him.

The fire was put out by the Tetovo territorial fire brigade together with staff from the Forestry Enterprise. Nobody was injured. The 55-year-old now faces criminal charges for "causing general endangerment" - an article of the Criminal Code that requires no intent, only a consequence.

There is nothing unusual in this story, and that is exactly the point. This is not arson, not revenge, not insurance fraud. This is a man clearing his yard in early September on a mountain slope, in a country where forests burned all summer. The most banal possible cause of the most predictable possible outcome.

Every year the state repeats the same appeal: do not burn dry grass and waste in the open, fire spreads. The appeal gets published, gets carried by the media, and gets ignored - not out of spite, but because clearing with fire is the cheapest and fastest method, and nobody has offered another one. Who is going to haul the dried waste out of a yard in a village on Sar Mountain, if not the owner himself?

And there the circle closes: the institution appeals, the citizen lights the fire, the forest burns, the fire brigade puts it out, the police detain him, the prosecution files charges. Every step in the chain works. Only prevention - which would mean organised collection of plant waste from rural municipalities instead of an annual appeal - appears nowhere on that list.