Every summer the same story: the sun does as it pleases, and the country burns on several fronts at once. In a single day the Crisis Management Centre registered a whole string of open-air fires across the country - and this is no climate surprise, but a season we know in advance, and one for which we are never prepared.

Active hotspots are burning near Zhelino, where flames caught low vegetation, then by the road towards Gostivar in the municipality of Bogovinje, and in Kriva Palanka, at the „Dumachka Maala” locality, where the fire devoured low vegetation and acacia plantations. Some were contained - one near Prosenikovo in the Strumica area where rubbish was burning, another in the outskirts of Staro Nagorichane.

Low vegetation, dry meadows, rubbish left to smoulder - that is the fuel. A single spark is enough, a tossed cigarette or a burning landfill, and the fire is off. The question is not why it burns, but why every summer we are caught as if for the first time.

The country's firefighting service has for years worked with an old fleet, too few people and budgets that get drawn up only once something burns, not before. When three or four locations burn at once in different corners, you see how thin the line is between a controlled fire and a catastrophe.

The Crisis Management Centre counts the hotspots, the crews put them out, and the next scorching day will bring a fresh list again. Prevention - clearing dry surfaces, a ban on burning rubbish, fines for negligence - remains a topic discussed only once the smoke rises. Until when?