2024-08-17 06:12:57
The fire in the Galichitsa mountain, which spreads in the southwestern part of North Macedonia and in Eastern Albania, has been active for the eleventh day.
It moved from the Albanian side, and was extinguished by 120 people, including the rangers of the National Park “Galichitsa”, employees of the National Park “Pelister”, the Nature Park “Ezerani” and the Mountain Rescue Service “Patagonia” from Ohrid, firefighters from Bitola, Ohrid, Sveti Nikole and Resen, the Crisis Management Center (CMC), the Directorate for Protection and Rescue (DZS), as well as from citizens-volunteers from Prespa, Ohrid and the surrounding areas, Gyuro Jovcevski, responsible for fire protection, informed this afternoon in Galichitsa National Park, quoted by the local publication MKD.
In a video address to the public, Jovcevski said citizens should remain calm and not panic because they are safe.
“Today we secured the eastern side along Prespa Lake. Heavy work was being done on the construction of fire belts with machines. 40 people have been on site since early morning. Work is now underway in the most north-eastern part at the Red Cross building, which is now secured, as well as the road that runs past it. It is most critical in the extreme northwestern points where aircraft are needed. And there are 40 people building belts around the fire. The fire is expected to be gradually extinguished in the north and east, and three planes and one helicopter are expected in the west,” Jovcevski said, stressing that he is demanding the strictest changes in the law against all those who cause fires.”
The director of the CMC, Stoyanche Angelov, explained that extinguishing is difficult because of the large number of unexploded ammunition left in the high parts of the mountain from earlier military actions. Over 100 explosions have been heard in recent days from the area of the fire. Therefore, the extinguishing tactic was to wait for the fire to go down.
According to the latest information, there were 49 fires in the country yesterday, and today until 1 p.m. there were 22 active fires. Of these, 3 have been extinguished, 9 have been contained and 10 are active, writes BTA.