State of emergency due to the wildfires in the region of Haskovo remains in force

The state of emergency declared in the municipalities of Harmanli, Lyubimets and Svilengrad (Southern Bulgaria) due to wildfires remains in force. On August 10, the fire is burning in 3 places in Haskovo region.

The fire near Yerusalimovo was close to reaching Maritsa motorway. Firefighters and forestry officials prevented this from happening.

"Yesterday, the fire broke out on state forest land of about 1,000 decares of non-timber forest area, low-growing shrubs and similar tree species," said Mihail Mihailov, director of the State Forest Service-Svilengrad.

Firefighters from Smolyan, Kardzhali and Yambol took part in extinguishing the fires in the Haskovo region. No people were injured, but 2 houses and outbuildings in the village of Valche Pole burned down yesterday due to negligence.

"A woman, who was cleaning a fireplace where she was cooking something, threw away hot coals and the strong wind quickly ignited the fire," added Anastas Anastasov, mayor of Lyubimets Municipality.

In Sakar area, there are wildfires every summer. The cause of the fires that have destroyed thousands of acres of forests over the past 20 years is most often human irresponsibility. In most cases, just one spark is enough.

"Sometimes it happens from farm work. In most cases it's human negligence. When people throw cigarettes, they do not think it may set the forest on fire. The weather here, in our area, is very hot and at a certain point trouble happens," added Georgi Georgiev, a resident of the village of Yerusalimovo.

Today in Yerusalimovo village, Chief Commissioner Nikolai Nikolov, the head of fire fighting service, urged peope to be careful.

"High temperatures, dry weather, very strong wind, and the causes - over 90% of them are people and their activities. It could be negligence, complacency, underestimation of the situation," said Chief Commissioner Nikolai Nikolov.

Agricultural work should be postponed for a day or two because of high temperatures and strong wind, the chief of the fire fighting service insisted.