Skopje, 6 August 2021 (MIA) – Wildfires burning in the region of Delchevo and Pehchevo, eastern North Macedonia, still pose a serious threat where firefighters and soldiers have been deployed as well as helicopters of North Macedonia’s Army and from Serbia. “A 60-km wind is blowing, which is hindering firefighting efforts to extinguish blazes,” said Goran Stojanovski of the Crisis Management Center’s (CMC) operations and coordination sector. Speaking at a news conference on Friday afternoon, he said that the situation is very difficult near Pehchevo on three locations. “There are some 350 people deployed there, who are assisted by Pehchevo residents, but the fire is yet to be brought under control. The fire could spill over in Bulgaria, we cannot say for sure now. We’re making attempts to dispatch more helicopters to at least prevent the fire from spreading into Bulgaria,” Stojanovski said. In the meantime, three firefighting helicopters, including two Serbian helicopters, have been dispatched to reach the Berovo village of Machevo, were the situation is dire with a wildfire posing threat to several nearby houses. “The helicopters will fly over the region of Pehchevo, Delchevo and Berovo until there’s enough daylight,” Crisis Management Center head Stojanche Angelov wrote on Facebook. A wildfire has been localized in Sveti Nikole. At the moment, over 80 people are on site to put out the flames. “Everything that will be extinguished will went up in flames again, which makes it very hard to act in the area,” he stated. Larger fires are being extinguished in the region of Prilep, on two locations that involve inaccessible terrain, which requires air support to be dispatched. Another inaccessible terrain has been reported in the region of Radovish. Speaking about the wildfire in Skopje’s Saraj, Stojanovski said it has been fully extinguished. However, he added, a new one has broken out near Tetovo’s Laskarci in the western part of the country. Another wildfire is active in the west. NATO’s Next-Generation Incident Command System (NICS) has been activated in all bodies in the crisis management system. “All resources and subjects at local level can be seen in real time. There’s a map showing where the army is, where the police are, and where the fire brigades are. Today’s data is being gathered to allow us the first thing in the morning to deploy the fire brigade, planes, international assistance in order to battle raging wildfires in the country in the most effective way,” said Marija Milkova, assistant head of the Center’s operations and coordination sector. Map showing active and localized wildfires in the country by 5 pm.