Summer is over, and the number stands: 1,696 open-air fires across the country between 1 June and 31 August. The figure was announced by Muhamed Ali, director of the Crisis Management Centre.

Of those, 69 were forest fires. The other 1,627 burned on dry grass, stubble fields, low-growth degraded woodland and landfills. That ratio matters more than the total, because it says something concrete - the overwhelming majority of these fires did not start deep in a forest, but in places where somebody dumped, lit or left something behind.

The appeal is free, the clean-up isn't

The Crisis Management Centre's appeal is known by heart: do not light fires in the open, do not throw cigarette butts and flammable waste into nature, report any smoke to 112 immediately. Not a word of it is wrong.

But when 1,627 out of 1,696 fires are on grass, stubble and landfills, the question is not whether citizens heard the appeals. The question is who maintains those landfills, who polices the burning of stubble, and how many misdemeanour proceedings were opened in three months. An appeal is the cheapest measure an institution can reach for, and the easiest one to repeat next year.

September brings no relief

Stojanche Angelov, director of the Protection and Rescue Directorate, warned that the danger remains extremely high. In a single day, 26 fires were recorded. A serious fire is burning in the Struga municipality, near the villages of Lokov and Burinec, where low-growth woodland, shrub and thornbush are alight, with the risk of the fire reaching high-quality forest. High daytime temperatures are limiting the use of a helicopter.

One morning report, as of 7:30, logged 41 fires - 30 extinguished, five brought under control, six still active. It burned near Shtip, between the villages of Selce, Puhche, Stepanci and Lakavica. It burned in the Struga area near Piskupshtina, Lukovo and Burinec. It burned in Kichevo near Tajmishte. In the Skopje valley, crews were fighting fires at three locations - Kopanica in Saraj, Paligrad in Studenichani and Grachani in Gjorche Petrov.

The crews on the ground are doing their job. Their output is visible in the figure of 30 fires put out in 24 hours. What is not visible is the system that is supposed to reduce the number of fires that start in the first place.

Three months, nearly 1,700 fires, and a season that every year begins with appeals and ends with statistics.