The country is burning on several fronts at once again, and the figures released by the Crisis Management Centre change by the hour - but the picture underneath them does not.

By 13:00 on 16 August, nine open-air fires were on record: four active, three under control and two extinguished. The morning update that same day was worse - six active fires, one under control and a full 22 put out overnight.

Where it is burning

The active hotspots are spread across the country: in the municipality of Studeničani, between the villages of Morane, Vrtekica and Ramni Gaber, mixed forest is burning. In Makedonski Brod the fire is at a place called Viduš, near the villages of Dragov Dol and Lokvica - low vegetation, low-growth forest and shrubland. In Veles and Zelenikovo the fire near the village of S'lp spread towards the villages of Dobrino and Tisovica, where good oak forest is burning too. In Jegunovce the fire line near the villages of Kopance and Tudence moved towards the Skopje village of Bojane. In Kruševo it is burning near the villages of Borino and Žitoše.

So: the Skopje area, Veles, Tetovo, Kruševo, Makedonski Brod. Not one fire that escaped control, but an entire map.

Vržale - where the ground crews cannot get

A new hotspot opened above the village of Vržale in the municipality of Zelenikovo. The head of the Crisis Management Centre, Muhamet Ali, was on site in the afternoon together with the deputy commander of the City of Skopje fire brigade, Erol Aliu. Two specialised vehicles from the Protection and Rescue Directorate were deployed as well.

„I am monitoring the situation and coordinating directly from the field, in close cooperation with all deployed crews. Our priority is to bring the fire under control, localise it and continue with all necessary capacity until it is fully extinguished,” Ali said.

The problem is the terrain. The fire is in an inaccessible spot that rules out full containment from the ground, so an air intervention was planned for the following morning - depending on weather conditions and the state of the terrain. The crews stayed out all night.

This is the point where the story repeats itself every summer: once the fire reaches ground no vehicle can enter, the only realistic option is from the air. And air capacity is limited, split between several hotspots, and dependent on the weather.

Twenty-two fires extinguished in a single night is serious work and the crews on the ground have earned that number. But 22 out and six new ones the next morning is not a victory - it is a loop the country enters every August.

The question nobody asks out loud is why every season starts with the same improvisation instead of a prepared plan: how many planes and helicopters are operational before summer begins, rather than after the first forest has burned?