It's October, and Macedonia Is Still Burning: 30 Fires in a Single Day, Five of Them at Landfills and Rubbish Dumps

It's October, and the Crisis Management Centre is still publishing bulletins as if it were mid-August. By 6:30 p.m. yesterday, 30 open-air fires had been registered: 16 put out, 2 brought under control and 12 still active.

The morning gave no hint of an afternoon like this. In the 24 hours to 7:30 a.m., the centre counted 39 fires, of which 35 had been completely extinguished and only three were active. By evening, the active ones had become twelve.

It's worst in the forests. Near Jabolčište, in the municipality of Čaška, beech and oak forest and dwarf scrub are burning, and near Strima in Lipkovo - pine and low forest. There were also active fires between Dračevica, Cvetovo, Količani and Crvena Voda in Studeničani, in Laktinje (Debarca), Leski (Vinica), Dobri Dol (Vrapčište), Kukurečani (Bitola), Dobromiri along the Crna Reka (Novaci), Matejče (Lipkovo) and at three locations in the Prilep area - Erekovci, Šelaverci and Sredorek.

The rubbish that burns

The list contains a detail that's easily lost among the village names. Of the 30 fires, five were burning at landfills or on rubbish: the "Krasta" landfill near Kumanovo, the illegal dump between Grdovci and Mojanci near Kočani, where tyres and wood were burning, the town landfill in Kratovo, rubbish on Goce Delčev boulevard in Centar, and rubbish with low vegetation in Dolno Lisiče.

An illegal dump full of tyres doesn't appear overnight. Someone was dumping there, and someone else didn't react until it went up in flames. Smoke from burning tyres doesn't ask whose jurisdiction it is. Who will answer for landfills burning in October?

Six fires, meanwhile, were burning on stubble fields - in Leski, Kukurečani, Šelaverci, Lokveni near Dolneni and at two locations in Mogila. Dry stubble in autumn is a ready-made fuse. Will we ever find out how it caught fire?