Firefighters from Struga drove into the fields near Dolna Belica to put out a blaze. They came out with a burned-out vehicle and two of their own men in hospital. The wind shifted the direction of the flames, the fire caught the rear of the truck, and what should have been a routine call turned into a crew fighting to get itself out.

One firefighter has burns on his hands and face. The other was choking on thick smoke. Both were taken to hospital, and the mayor of Struga, Mendi Kjira, visited them that evening to wish them a quick recovery. The damaged vehicle made the intervention harder still - the crews were left with less equipment at exactly the moment the fire was spreading towards houses in the village.

„The most important thing is that there are no serious consequences for human life” - that is the sentence that came out of the Municipality of Struga, alongside an admission that the material damage is significant. And it is true. But when a territorial fire unit loses a vehicle in the middle of summer, that is not just material damage - that is a hole in an entire region's defences before the next fire.

And the next fire does not wait. On that same day there were seven open-air fires across the country, and the weekend forecast promises temperatures up to 40 degrees. Dry grass, a light wind that knows how to pick up without warning, and crews going in with equipment as old as the budget allows.

The question nobody asks loudly enough: how many fire trucks does Macedonia actually have, how many of them work, and what happens when one of them burns down mid-season? Every summer begins with appeals for the public to be careful, and ends with firefighters putting out blazes with whatever they have left. Public caution is part of the solution. The equipment carried by the people who walk into the fire first is the other part - and that part depends on a budget, not on appeals.