Hungarian Firefighters Continue to Tackle Wildfires in North Macedonia

A firefighting team from the National Directorate General for Disaster Management, offered by the government, has been working in a new location in North Macedonia since Tuesday.

The professional firefighters are now helping to extinguish fires at the Jasen Reserve, home to rare plant and animal species, and are also protecting homes near Kozjak Lake.

The experts set up a new campsite in the village of Belica, Kičevo earlier this week as the Hungarian contingent entered its sixth day of assistance with forty-six people in the Balkan country, battling widespread wildfires.

The Hungarian firefighters are using spark arresters and chainsaws to set up protection zones, and are also using drones to scout the threatened areas and model the direction and speed of the fire’s spread, a statement from the directorate said.

After a full day of work,

the Hungarian team was asked to help with an extraordinary five-hour operation late on Tuesday evening, when a fast-spreading fire broke out in the Jasen area,

one of the country’s four national parks, and after the night’s intervention, the extinguishing work continued on Wednesday in a 600-hectare area.

Firefighters have been tamping down the flames in the area around the village of Breznica (Makedonszki Brod) for the past few days, they added.

The extinguishing work is coordinated at the base of the Protection and Rescue Directorate of North Macedonia, where the images sent by aerial reconnaissance are analyzed and used to direct the fire-fighting units in the area.

The Hungarian team members are still in good health and are being medically assisted by the National Ambulance Service’s ambulance doctor and two emergency medical technicians,

the statement concluded.

Via MTI; Featured image via honvedelem.hu