Faced with several fires, Northern Macedonia has been facing several fires in the last three days. According to a statement from the Crisis Management Center of North Macedonia, today alone, 25 open space fires have been recorded in various areas in the country, of which, as of 18:00 hours, 21 remained active and 4 were brought under control.

Due to a fire in the area of Kriva Palanka (northeastern part of North Macedonia), one man died while trying to extinguish the fire that threatened his house.

The country’s Interior Minister, Panze Toskovski, said this afternoon that due to the seriousness of the forest fire situation across the country, the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated.

“Today, the mechanism of European assistance in response to the fires has been activated and all state capabilities are being put into operation to the maximum extent,” Toskovski said.

As he noted, Greece, within the framework of this mechanism, has already provided two firefighting aircraft of the type Canadair, which have been put into operation, as well as two firefighting units that will help North Macedonia in extinguishing the fires.

The two firefighting aircraft provided by Greece operated this afternoon near the village of Nikolić, in the Doirani area, where a large fire broke out in an agroforestry area, which also crossed into Greek territory.

The mayor of Doirani (on the North Macedonia side), Ango Angov, said earlier today that “due to the alarming situation with the fire in the village of Nikolic, airborne means are needed.”

North Macedonia has just two firefighting aircraft, of the Air Tractors type, one of which is out of service and just two pilots for them, who have even retired, and the state has recruited them to fight the fires.