A fire broke out at the „Bukovo\" landfill in Ohrid, in a section where municipal waste has not been dumped for some time. Crews from the public utility „Ohridski Komunalec\", together with the Ohrid territorial fire unit, worked to contain it, cutting a firebreak and a protective line to stop it spreading.

The utility says the possibility that the fire was deliberately set is not being ruled out. The cause will be determined by the competent institutions.

A landfill burning in the second half of August

Anyone living near a landfill knows the difference between a forest fire and a waste fire. Waste does not burn cleanly. It smoulders for a long time, ignites from within, and gives off smoke whose composition nobody on the ground measures at the moment it is thickest.

The fact that the fire started in a section where waste is no longer dumped is not a mitigating circumstance - that is old, settled, compacted material in which gases linger longer and in which extinguishing takes longer too.

Eight thousand cubic metres of soil were not enough

This is the figure that says the most. The utility reports that over eight thousand cubic metres of soil have been brought to „Bukovo\" and deposited this year to cover and stabilise parts of the landfill - among other reasons, precisely to reduce the chance of fires starting and spreading.

So the measure exists, it was implemented, and it was implemented on a serious scale. And the landfill is burning anyway. That does not mean the measure is pointless - without it the current fire would probably have been bigger. It means covering with soil is maintenance, not a solution.

If it was set deliberately, that is a separate question

The suspicion of arson opens a second question: who has an interest in a landfill burning, and how easily can you get into it. A landfill that can be set alight is also a landfill somebody can walk into unobstructed.

The answer will be established through procedure. The question that rarely gets an answer is a different one - will anybody actually measure the air above Ohrid while the fire is being fought, or will this remain another fire about which all we know is that it was brought under control.