Three Bulgarian ministries are joining forces to improve wildfire prevention and response this summer. The measures will focus both on preventing fires from breaking out and on ensuring faster and more effective firefighting operations when they do occur.
Ivan Demerdzhiev, Minister of the Interior: "Following the Prime Minister's instructions, all the responsible ministries have joined forces to develop an action plan, beginning with prevention and ending with the most effective possible response to wildfires. I would like to thank my colleagues because, together with them and the General Directorate for Fire Safety and Civil Protection, we identified these measures and established coordination so that we are better prepared from the very beginning and more effective when fires occur.
"When the fire danger index rises, our vehicles and fire service teams will be positioned as close as possible to high-risk areas to minimise response times. We have organised the use of the drones available to the General Directorate for Fire Safety and Civil Protection so that fire outbreaks can be detected and located quickly, allowing our teams to respond much faster.
"We have also established coordination primarily focused on prevention. We will work closely with forestry services and mayors in high-risk areas. The armed forces are ready to assist us with helicopters in the event of wildfires. The General Directorate Border Police also has aerial assets that we will use, mainly for transporting personnel and equipment and for monitoring active fires."
Dimitar Stoyanov, Minister of Defence: "The Bulgarian Armed Forces are ready to help. The equipment available for firefighting includes four Cougar helicopters, two Mi-17 helicopters and one Spartan aircraft equipped with the new Guardian aerial firefighting system. Of course, this aircraft system has not yet been tested under real operational conditions. We hope it will prove its effectiveness this year.
"The aircraft and helicopters are fully crewed with the necessary personnel, and the current numbers are sufficient. Another important point is that the Bulgarian Armed Forces have 22 units actively involved in firefighting operations, seven of them based in northern Bulgaria and 15 in southern Bulgaria, with up to 400 personnel available.
"We are fully prepared to provide assistance and to continue working, as we always have, in excellent cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior so that we can support one another in dealing with emerging situations."
Plamen Abrovski, Minister of Agriculture and Food: "As far as the agriculture and forestry sectors are concerned, we are working in two directions. The first relates to the protection of agricultural land. In this regard, an order was issued today prohibiting mowing during the hottest part of the day. The order takes effect on 10 July.
"Our aim today is to inform farmers that mowing will only be permitted during the night and in the early morning until 8:00 a.m. The purpose is not to impose measures against agriculture but to prevent fires that spread from forests to farmland and from farmland back into forests.
"In addition, regarding forest protection, although only 55% of the required wildfire prevention measures had been completed when we took office, the Executive Forest Agency and the six state forestry enterprises have largely caught up with the outstanding work. All forestry personnel are now deployed in the field. We sincerely hope there will be far fewer wildfires than last year, but we are ready."
"We expect a severe wildfire season," summarised Chief Commissioner Aleksandar Dzhartov, Director of the General Directorate for Fire Safety and Civil Protection.
He noted that the number of fires involving dry grass and other natural vegetation has almost doubled over the past two weeks. Chief Commissioner Dzhartov appealed to the public to exercise extreme caution when handling open flames, as a large proportion of the fires that cause significant damage and endanger lives result from negligence.
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