At 07:52 on „Yuri Gagarin\" street in Skopje's Kozle neighbourhood, thick smoke began pouring out of the windows. The fire took hold of the roof structure of two joined houses, owned by a 52-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman, both from Skopje.

The fire brigade intervened with two vehicles and put the blaze out. An emergency medical team also arrived and, after the intervention, headed to the „Mother Teresa\" Clinical Centre. According to the Interior Ministry there were no injuries. An inspection team from the Skopje police carried out the site examination.

Two joined houses, one roof, two households

The detail that goes least noticed in statements like this is precisely the one that means the most to residents: the houses were joined. When the roof structure between two buildings burns, the fire does not ask where the property boundary is. One household was on fire, the other was waiting.

This kind of construction is common across Skopje's older neighbourhoods, where houses were extended one against the other over decades. It is part of the city's urban story - and at the same time a risk that rarely makes it into any fire-safety plan, right up until smoke starts coming out of the windows.

The cause - unknown for now

Not one of the statements says how the fire started. That is normal immediately after an intervention, but it is also the point where news like this usually ends. The fire gets put out, the site gets examined, and the cause - once established - almost never returns to the public with the same visibility as the thick smoke did.

In a house where an 80-year-old woman lives, that question is not a formality. The answer determines whether this was wiring, an appliance, a faulty chimney - and whether the same thing can happen again on the next joined roof structure on the same street.