The Kitka fire was brought fully under control. Then it was fully extinguished. Then for an entire day there was not a trace of flame. And then - it flared up again.

Stojanche Angelov, head of the Protection and Rescue Directorate, did not reach for a diplomatic phrase. "Unfortunately, some malicious people, people who out of self-interest or motives of revenge keep setting it alight, have set it alight again," he said. According to Angelov, the arsonists lit a long line, after which the fire spread quickly.

That is an accusation a state rarely makes this directly. Not "we suspect that", not "the possibility cannot be excluded" - but malicious people setting fires on purpose, out of profit or revenge. And Angelov goes a step further: he says there are indications the arsonists come from that very region, and appeals to local residents to keep an eye on certain people among them.

"I am telling the arsonists that every state service is working to establish their identity and sooner or later they will be brought before justice," the Directorate head said.

What exactly is burning

The Kitka fire is spread across the municipalities of Studenichani and Zelenikovo, around the villages of Morane, Vrtekica and Ramni Gaber, with an arm reaching towards Paligrad and Vrazhale where mixed forest is burning. Of five active hotspots in the country, this one is described as the hardest and most complex to put out. An Interior Ministry helicopter took part in the operation, and crews defended the village of Paligrad through the night. Firefighting resumed in the morning with air tractors.

The remaining hotspots are burning in the municipality of Makedonski Brod near the village of Dragov Dol, at the spot known as "Vidush" and near the village of Lokvica, then in the Ilinden municipality near the logistics centre and near the village of Bujkovci, and in the Saraj municipality around the village of Bojane. The previous day at least 33 open-air fires were registered.

Kire Mihailov, deputy director of the public enterprise "National Forests", described the situation with an even sharper word - terrorism. According to him, three new fires broke out on Friday between 9pm and 10pm near Malareka, Babin Dol and Grncharica, and new hotspots kept appearing along the line between existing fires.

The accusation is heavy, the evidence is heavier

This is where precision matters. The state has two things: indications and a motive. What it still does not have is a name, a person in custody or an indictment filed. A fire that reignites out of nothing in the same spot repeatedly is genuinely not a normal occurrence - but "all services are working to identify them" is a sentence we hear every fire season.

If there really are people setting the forests above Skopje alight for profit, they are gambling with human lives - Angelov says explicitly that they are directly endangering residents of the villages below Kitka. That carries prison, not a warning. It remains to be seen whether this season ends with an arsonist arrested, or with one more appeal to the public to keep an eye on their neighbours.