A big fire broke out on Makedonija Boulevard in Skopje, in an abandoned building from which gunshot-like cracks were heard. Firefighters intervened for hours, and after the blaze was put out came an arrest - but the story of abandoned buildings in the city center is older than this fire.

The Interior Ministry said two Skopje residents, aged 34 and 39, were arrested on suspicion of the criminal offense of "Causing general danger." The fire broke out in an abandoned building, and during the intervention one firefighter was injured. The flames swallowed part of the crumbling structure before the crews managed to bring it under control.

These abandoned buildings in Skopje's strict center are a time bomb. The years pass, ownership is often unclear, and the buildings stand empty and unprotected until they catch fire - or someone sets them alight. Each of them is a risk both to passersby and to the firefighters who have to go inside.

The question the city has been dodging for years is simple: how many such buildings are there in Skopje, who owns them, and why have they stood like that for decades? It is easier to arrest two people after the fire than to answer why the building was left to be a flammable ruin in the middle of a boulevard at all. The fire is put out in a day. The problem that made it possible burns quietly for years.