At around 5pm, a thick column of black smoke rose over Skopje, visible from half the city. Not a forest fire, not a crash on the road. A paint and varnish warehouse was burning inside the grounds of the former "Zelezara" steelworks, at 67 Aleksandar Makedonski Boulevard.

The fire was reported on the business premises of a private company based in the industrial complex. The Crisis Management Centre alerted the Fire Protection Brigade, which turned out with fire engines and twenty firefighters. Zvonko Tomevski, commander of the Skopje brigade, confirmed the fire was brought under control quickly and that there was material damage.

So far there is no word of any injuries. The police, who inspected the scene, will establish the cause.

Paint and solvents. In a residential zone.

The solvents in a warehouse like that are not ordinary fuel - they burn fast, the smoke they produce is toxic, and that is exactly the smoke that drifted this afternoon over parts of the city where people live. Nobody alerted the residents nearby that closing their windows might be the smart move. Word that something was on fire travelled faster through citizens' photographs than through any official channel.

The question left once the smoke clears is simpler than the fire itself: who allowed that building to store flammable chemicals at that location, and when did anyone last walk in to check whether the storage conditions were actually being met. The fire brigade does not answer that one - it arrives once things are already burning.

Twenty firefighters finished the job they were called out for. Whatever called them out usually starts much earlier, in some office where something went unchecked.