Eleven open-air fires in a single day. Two still active at 18:00 - near the village of Rapesh in the municipality of Novaci and near Govrlevo in the municipality of Sopishte. During the day the crews extinguished eight.

This is the snapshot from the Crisis Management Centre. In the middle of September.

Where it burned

In Rapesh the fire took hold in dry grass and low vegetation on the village outskirts, where the terrain remains difficult for firefighting units. In Sopishte, near Govrlevo, the flames are spreading through low woodland and dry grass.

The larger fire - the one moving from the village of Belica in Makedonski Brod towards the Jasen area - has been contained and brought fully under control. It affected sections of mixed and low forest on the mountain stretch, close to the reserve.

The eight that were put out were spread across the whole country. In the Skopje region - near Raovikj in Saraj, near Mralino in Ilinden, and at two locations in Butel, on Alpi and Boro Menkov streets. Elsewhere - on Vera Ciriviri street in Veles, between the Strumica villages of Ednokukjevo and Monospitovo, and near Vranishta and Misleshevo in the Struga area.

The list that repeats every day

In the previous 24 hours the figure was twelve. Then it burned near Nerashte in Tearce, near Erdzelija in Sveti Nikole, near Rashtani and Beleshtevica in Veles, near Agino Selo in Kumanovo. In Skopje - on the Vardar Quay in Karposh, in Dolno Svilare, Trubarevo, Stajkovci, Deljadrovci and Mrshevci. And near Desovo in Dolneni, and near the prison farm outside Bitola.

Read the two lists one after the other. Different villages, but the same picture: low vegetation, dry grass, waste.

Waste

That word appears too often to be a coincidence. In Tearce, waste was burning. Near Erdzelija - low vegetation and waste. This is not a forest fire from a drought year. This is something somebody set alight, or left to catch.

An open-air fire here rarely starts on its own. It starts with burning stubble, with illegal dumps, with a cigarette thrown by the roadside. Each of those fires then burns through crews, fuel, water and the hours of people who might have been needed somewhere else at the same moment.

The season is formally ending, but the lists are not getting shorter. The Crisis Management Centre says the situation is being monitored. The question is whether anyone is counting not only the fires, but the causes - and what they do with that number.