On the 3rd of August 2021, the competent authorities of Macedonia, through the Union Civil Protection mechanism, requested rescue assistance in controlling fires in the natural environment affecting several areas of Northern Macedonia, in particular, the eastern and north-eastern parts of the country. Slovenia responded immediately and provided northern Macedonia with rescue assistance from civil protection units, which will help extinguish fires in the natural environment with vehicles.
At the request of Northern Macedonia to fight wildfires, Slovenia immediately came to the rescue in solidarity. The convoy with 46 members of civil protection in 16 vehicles was prepared by the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Protection and Rescue for the period of seven days, and it was accompanied by the State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Stanislav Raščan, Ph.D. The staffing of the unit was based on units from North Primorska, which also includes professional firefighters from the Sežana Fire and Rescue Service and the Koper Fire Brigade. One representative also comes from the Kočevje volunteer fire service.
The unit for the trip to Macedonia is composed in such a way that it does not take too many firefighters from the regions which are also endangered by fires in Slovenia. “Us firefighters are used to such actions, the special thing in this situation is that there is more logistical preparation because Northern Macedonia is far away and we are usually used to closer locations, but this is a challenge that we will, I hope, successfully complete,” explained the operations manager Blaž Turk.
The weather conditions are not helping calm down the fires, the intervention is very demanding This is a rather demanding intervention. The weather conditions are optimal for the burning of the fires themselves. The daytime temperature, on average, is more than 42 degrees Celsius, and at night, it drops to around 30 degrees. The relative humidity is already less than 30 percent in the morning, and all these are ideal conditions for the spread of fires or the formation of new ones. The plan is to prepare for alternating work so that they can work 24 hours in the field in a smaller team.
To get a more accurate course of their work, they will have to wait for their arrival in Macedonia, where the authorities will present their needs. Based on the latter, our unit will decide on tactical plans and interventions. The unit is prepared to stay there for seven days, or in accordance with the needs of Northern Macedonia.
The journey, which they started before 1 p.m., will be long, but they are striving to arrive at the location as soon as possible and start helping. The unit is expected to arrive near Skopje on Thursday morning. According to the latest data, they will operate near Skopje, which may change due to the constant changing of data and the situation. “To assist the unit, the Protection and Rescue Administration will prepare and provide relevant data through international channels, which will then be taken into account in the field,” they added.
“Slovenia gave us the capacity to fight the fires in our country!” Macedonian Defence Minister Radmila Šekerinska wrote on Twitter. The Macedonian Embassy in Slovenia also thanked our country for its help. “We are eternally grateful for your help – a friend in need is a friend indeed! Thank you, Slovenia,” they wrote on Twitter.
Sara Rančigaj
