Battle against wildfire near Elshitsa continues, two helicopters join the fire fighting efforts

The fight against the wildfire near the village of Elshitsa, Panagyurishte region, Western Bulgaria, continues on August 9. The flames have engulfed thousands of decares of forest. The fire is about a kilometre away from the houses. There are no reports of injured people or affected houses.

The fire became more intense at the night. Late in the evening, it was at its peak and quite dangerous, Commissioner Angel Angelov, head of the Plovdiv fire fighting department, told BNT.

Heavy equipment is being used on the ground. The fire is now low. Two helicopters are dousing the flames.

The helicopters from Krumovo Air Base are filling water from two ponds near the village of Elshitsa.

Pazardzhik Regional Governor Trendafil Velichkov said there was no immediate danger to the residents. No evacuation has been made and is not necessary. No high air pollution was felt either.

Fortunately, there is no strong wind. Velichkov hopes the weather conditions will not make it spread and the fire fighters can deal with the blaze quickly.

The wildfire is raging is a black pine forest. At last count Monday night, the perimeter of the fire was over 2,000 decares of forest. A partial state of emergency has been declatred in Panagyurishte municipality.

Fire fighters, forest workers and volunteers are involved in extinguishing the fire. Fire fighters from Panagyurishte, Pazardzhik, Belovo, Septemvri, Peshtera, Velingrad, assisted by teams from Plovdiv and Pirdop are on the scene. Forest workers from the forest farms in the region with off-road vehicles, volunteers are involved in the extinguishing. A heavy crawler from “Asarel Medet” (copper extracting and processing factory) was sent to establish fire breaks.