Skopje, 28 July 2025 (MIA) – Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Monday that the situation involving wildfires across the country is under control. There are indications suggesting that most fires may have been started by arsonists, he noted.

“There are more than 30 wildfires every day, some 50 fires were recorded yesterday. There is suspicion that most of them may have been started by arsonists or may have broken out due to neglect. I can say throughout July we have the situation under control. All operational aircrafts of the Protection and Rescue Directorate, the Army and the police force are in use. All specialized vehicles are also in use after equipping them because we anticipated that this may happen,” Mickoski told reporters.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism has been also activated, the PM said, but since fires are raging all over Europe, probably there are no available aircrafts that might be dispatched here.

“The EU [Civil Protection] Mechanism was activated several days ago, but you should have in mind that fires are burning almost everywhere in Europe, mainly in the Mediterranean region. Greece has reported fatalities after whole neighbourhoods were affected the same as in Turkey. Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia as well as Spain, Italy and Cyprus are all affected with some 240 wildfires a day. At this moment, there are no aircrafts available that could be dispatched to help,” stated Mickoski.  

Currently, he added, more than 200 army servicemen have been deployed on the ground alongside police forces.

Earlier, the Crisis Management Center (CMC) reported that a total of 51 wildfires were registered in the past 24 hours across the country, including eight fires that are active, seven that have been contained and 36 that have been put out.

Photo: MIA