site.btaEfforts to Extinguish Fires in Haskovo Region Continue,Two Helicopters Deployed

Efforts to extinguish the fires in the southern region of Haskovo that broke out on Friday continue. Two helicopters are involved in operation near the village of Gornoseltsi, Ivaylovgrad Municipality, where 10 houses burned down yesterday, and some were inhabited, said the Regional Directorate of Fire Safety and Population Protection in Haskovo. More than 15 teams of firefighters are working to extinguish fires in the region.

Regional governor Mehmed Ataman declared a partial state of disaster in the municipalities of Ivaylovgrad and Topolovgrad. The fire near Gornoseltsi is in a hard-to-reach area. Heavy equipment is working on the ground. Firefighters worked through the night, said Ivaylovgrad Mayor Diana Ovcharova, who has been near the outbreak since Friday. She said there was a danger of the fire spreading to the village of Pokrovan during the night, but the wind had reversed its direction. Deciduous and coniferous forest was affected, Ovcharova added. The area of the disaster is about 400 hectares.

Three properties, farm buildings and six cars were also burned in the village of Srem in Topolovgrad. Initial estimates of the area affected there are about 1,000 hectares, much of it deciduous forest. A man who was thought to have disappeared when he went into the forest to save his beehives was later found unharmed.

A third fire has taken up on an area of 200 hectares between the Topolovgrad villages of Radovets and Planinovo, however there is no danger to the population. 

Yesterday, fires broke out in different regions of the country.