The fire in Vizbegovo, on the site of one of the old metal-recycling facilities near Skopje, is still active and has not been fully brought under control. According to sources, the fire is the result of a burning iron-grinding machine - industrial equipment which, placed under non-standard load, easily becomes the source of an incident.

Teams from the Skopje fire brigade are working alongside the site owners and employees, with the help of heavy machinery and water tankers. The crisis-management centre is coordinating operations. Thick black smoke spread across multiple Skopje neighbourhoods through the morning - the smoke can be seen from Aerodrom, from Kisela Voda, all the way to the Karpoš municipality.

Nobody is doing the maths out loud on the health consequences of this smoke invasion of the air. PM2.5 and PM10 levels in a city that already has some of Europe's worst readings in winter, climb further. For asthmatics, for children, for the elderly - this isn't „just a fire on industrial property". It's one day less of life for everyone who breathes this air.

The question that's still being dodged out loud - why are these particular industrial facilities in Vizbegovo still operating in such a state? Scrap-metal recycling is a legitimate industry, but without modern fire-suppression systems and without serious environmental protection, it exists only as a risk generator. And in moments like today's, that can't be hidden.

Skopje's air isn't a „service" paid for only by some - it's a public good. And every fire, every unmonitored operation, every „industrial zone" that looks more like legalised chaos - it all destroys that good. Not just now. Gradually, and permanently.