Wildfire at the Bulgarian-Greek border has been burning for three weeks, efforts to exntinguish it continue

The critical situation with wildfires in Southwestern Bulgaria is calming down. The outbreaks in the municipality of Strumyani - between the villages of Karpelevo and Tsaparevo, as well as the fire above the village of Senokos are localized. However, the fire in the area at the border with Greece is still raging. There the situation remains complicated on the eastern front.

The fire in the Slavyanka mountain has been burning for three weeks. While on its western front the situation is calming down, the flames continue in the east. Strong winds and high temperatures are fanning extinguished outbreaks. Firefighters are monitoring the affected areas to make sure the fires are burning internally and there is no danger of expansion. On one side, the fire has entered a deciduous forest and is burning low, which is easier to extinguish.

Efforts will focus on containing the fire with heavy-duty equipment. A 7-km breaks will be extended from the east. The fire has already affected over 20 thousand acres in both countries, with about 4 thousand acres affected on the Bulgarian side.

As the work of the officials is very complicated because of the difficult-to-access terrain, the extinguishing will mainly continue from the air, which today was carried out by one military helicopter and the two Swedish aircraft. Two planes from Spain arrives, which have larger capacity.

A group of about 20 tourists from Bulgaria and abroad today expressed readiness to help and were prepared with extinguishing equipment.

The group took the fire route from Izvor hut to Slavyanka hut. It was accompanied by a professional guide who kept in touch with the gendarmerie and received instructions on the safest route.

Meanwhile, more than 150 people on the ground are fighting the fire. It is about 3 km from the nearest village of Goleshovo, but there is no danger to the residents and no evacuation is necessary.

"Tomorrow we plan to bring our other specialised equipment that helped us at the fire in Senokos, which will allow us to be more active on the ground. It can move on difficult terrain and at the same time carries enough volume of water to extinguish smaller outbreaks," Eng. Valentin Chambov, Head of Southwest State Enterprise, said.

Firefighting teams from all over the country, as well as aerial equipment from Bulgaria and abroad are still extinguishing the fire in the Slavyanka mountain.

"We really need complex forces, because the fire is in an extremely difficult, rugged area, it is rocky, difficult to pass, some places are not passable at all, and it requires everyone's efforts, resilience and patience above all," said Atanas Stoyanov - mayor of Sandanski municipality.

Suppressing the fire will take time and a lot of resources. The biggest hope of the residents and people on the ground is that it will rain, which will help the extinguishing to happen faster.

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