At around 10:30pm the police received a report: a tree was on fire in Kapishtec park. The cause wasn't heat or lightning but a firecracker. According to the Skopje police department, the firework was thrown by a minor, and the fire was put out by the Skopje Fire Brigade.

For residents, this comes as no surprise. In a post in the Facebook group "For a Decent Kapishtec", they write that a group of minors and young people set off fireworks in the neighbourhood every day, on top of the problems with loud music. "We report them to the police every day, but so far the police haven't reacted in time," the post says.

This time the firecrackers didn't stop at noise. According to residents, the fire very nearly spread to the surrounding buildings and electrical substations.

Video from the park quickly enraged the public, but with the anger came the danger of the wrong target. Actress Eli Klincharevska warned that the children seen in the footage are the ones who reported the fire, not the ones who started it, and that their parents were there. A witch hunt against the wrong kids is the last thing this case needs.

The police are now taking steps to clear things up and establish all the circumstances. But the question residents are asking isn't only who threw the firecracker last night. It's why the reports from the previous days ended with no response - and how many trees, or buildings, had to burn before someone showed up ahead of the firefighters?