Thirty-three hours. That is how long the Bitola firefighters' operation lasted - from 15:30 on 12 August, when the first flames went up near the village of Makovo, until one past midnight on 14 August. And this was not one location. Fires broke out at Graešnica, Kukurečani, Ergela and Gneotino, while the hardest fight was fought at Ivanjevci, Novoselani and Lozani.

And then, in the statement from the Bitola fire service, came the sentence that changes the whole story: every fire at every location was set deliberately.

Not nature - somebody's hand

This is not the drought. Not the wind. Not the climate. Somebody is walking the ground on the hottest days of the year and lighting fires, knowing the vegetation is as dry as paper and the villages are within reach. According to the firefighters, the fire posed a serious threat to inhabited areas at every one of those locations.

Somebody was lighting fires while thirty-odd people went more than thirty hours without sleep putting out what he had lit.

Who was actually on the ground

The Bitola crews were not working alone. Overnight they were joined by colleagues from the Kavadarci fire service, rapid-response teams from the Protection and Rescue Directorate with four Pinzgauer vehicles, and volunteers from the Arhangel brigade in Bitola, who worked towards Lozani, Musinci, Puturus, Lopatica and the Beli Most area. Villagers helped too.

That is a picture of a force assembled ad hoc, night after night, from everyone with a vehicle and the will to use it. It works - but it works because people do not want their houses to burn, not because somebody worked out in advance how many crews Pelagonia needs in the second half of August.

Ground that still hides bombs from the First World War

At Makovo the fire has been contained, but smoke is still rising from a small stretch nobody can get to. The reason it cannot be reached is remarkable: that ground still holds unexploded ordnance left over from the First World War.

So a firefighter who wants to kill off the last hotspot has to weigh up whether he is about to step on something that has been lying there for more than a century. This is not a metaphor for neglect - this is literal, physical neglect, waiting for somebody to come and clear it.

The Municipality of Bitola thanked everyone involved and appealed to citizens not to light fires in the open. The appeal is correct. But an appeal is not a measure, and it is not what is missing when arson has been confirmed at every single location - what is missing is somebody being held to account for setting them, and that goes unmentioned in the statements.