Five Fires Still Burning, at Čanište the Blaze Has Split Into Four Fronts: For the First Time This Summer, the Army Deploys Before the Disaster

Thirty-seven fires in twenty-four hours. Five still active, one under control, thirty-one put out. That is the Crisis Management Centre's tally as of 7:30 in the morning, and it is a number that no longer surprises anyone - which is exactly the problem.

The worst of it is at Čanište, near Prilep. The fire there is moving along four fronts: towards the villages of Kruševica and Lopatica, one arm towards Crna Reka, and a fourth that has already reached the area around Orle in the municipality of Novaci. It is mostly low vegetation burning, but when a fire splits into four directions, low vegetation is only a matter of time until it finds something taller.

Stojanče Angelov, head of the Protection and Rescue Directorate, said crews from Negotino and the Skopje fire brigade are on their way to secure the village of Kruševica. Angelov added something worth reading twice: for the first time this summer, Army personnel will be deployed preventively, tasked with helping local residents if the fire closes in on the villages.

The Army deployed preventively. Not as a response to a catastrophe, but as preparation for one. If this is an admission that the fire services cannot cover the ground on their own, then it is an honest admission - but who is going to ask the next question, which is why, after all these years, the same capacity is still the same capacity?

Besides Čanište, fires are also active in Studeničani, Makedonski Brod, Kičevo and Mogila. At Morane, Vrtenica and Ramni Gaber, mixed forest is burning. In Makedonski Brod, near the site of Viduš and the villages of Dragov Dol and Lokvica, the fire has taken hold in low vegetation, low-growth forest and scrub. Near Tajmište in the Kičevo area, at a spot called Darda, high-growth beech forest is burning - and beech does not grow back in one season.

The landfill fire in Delčevo, which broke out several days ago, has finally been brought under control.

The list of municipalities where fires were extinguished in 24 hours is longer than the list of active ones: Saraj, Bitola, Strumica, Veles, Ohrid, Debarca, Gevgelija, Kičevo, Jegunovce, Tetovo, Tearce, Gostivar, Kumanovo, Lipkovo, Želino, Kočani, Struga, Zelenikovo, Aračinovo and Kruševo. What burned was low vegetation, rubbish dumps, abandoned fields, mixed forest, scrub and stubble.

Read that list one more time. Rubbish dumps. Abandoned fields. Stubble. These are not forest fires that fall out of the sky - these are fires that start where somebody left something, burned something, or failed to clear something. And every summer after that, the same crews run to the same places.