Angellov: Smoke over Skopje is coming from fire near Kosovo border, battle against flames continues for third day

Stojançe Angelov, director of the Directorate for Protection and Rescue, announced that only one wildfire is active within the territory of the City of Skopje. The blaze crossed from Kosovo into North Macedonia two days ago, near the village of Graçan in the municipality of Gjorçe Petrov.

According to him, the flames pose no danger to populated areas. The fire has mainly engulfed grass, shrubs and low-growing juniper, vegetation that produces intense flames and even larger amounts of smoke. In some areas, it is spreading close to the ground through mixed woodland.

Angelov explained that on Wednesday, in addition to Skopje firefighters, two Air Tractor aircraft from the State Firefighting Service were deployed in the firefighting operation. Yesterday, Thursday, a police helicopter assisted Kosovo’s firefighting services, intervening from the Kosovo side, where the fire was more intense. It is the same fire, spreading on both sides of the border, while Skopje firefighters operated from Macedonian territory.

During the night, the wind blew toward Skopje, causing smoke from the fire burning in both Kosovo and Macedonia to be felt in several neighborhoods of the capital.

He stressed that this is the same smoke inhaled at close range and in incomparably higher concentrations by those engaged every day in fighting wildfires. Skopje firefighters remained along sections of the fire line throughout the night, but the difficult terrain made nighttime operations extremely difficult or impossible.

Angelov announced that the operation would continue this morning with more firefighters. Two “Air Tractor” aircraft from the State Firefighting Service, one police helicopter and one military helicopter will be deployed from the air./Telegrafi/