Chief Commissioner Nikolay Nikolov, former director of "Fire Safety and Population Protection" and current advisor to the Minister of Interior, commented on the numerous fires that have occurred in recent days, BNT reports.
"205 fires have been extinguished in the past 24 hours. The emphasis continues to be precisely Strumyani Municipality. We expect a helicopter to be involved at any moment to support our efforts, so that we can control it from the eastern part, i.e. towards Pirin, and hopefully we will be able to extinguish it today. People are making serious efforts. Let them continue with such enthusiasm. The other fire, which has been going on for many days, is Rila. I can no longer call it a fire there, but there are still smoldering fires and we should monitor it. Everything else is under control. Sveti Vlas and Sredets were specific fires. Many cars burned. And again in a parking lot that is unregulated. Usually parking lots are built accordingly. Cars are placed in the appropriate figures. That is, if one of the figures catches fire, they should not go to the others. Sredets is a very worrying fire. The city was in danger. It is not in danger from the fire, but from the smoke. And congratulations to the regional administration - they warned people, took measures, took them out of the endangered zone, so that there is no danger for them", said Nikolay Nikolov.
Nikolov explained whether there is a practice of sending firefighting teams from other regions of the country or is it preferable to work with volunteers on site.
"The practice is that if a fire is serious, i.e. we are talking about a disaster situation, there are pre-developed plans that allow cars, including from Sofia, to go down to Blagoevgrad. This is now in the hands of Director Dzhartov, who, at his discretion, can distribute more than 400 vehicles throughout the country to a relevant location. However, it is his responsibility, while sending all forces there, to also think about the capital. He cannot remove all the cars from Sofia. Our colleagues on the ground assess whether it is necessary to have volunteers or not. The interaction with the volunteers, those who were created under the Disaster Protection Act, these are over 3,000 people who have been trained, equipped, know what we are calling them for and what they should do. Things are arranged as an interaction", commented Nikolov.
Nikolov said that the fire services need their own helicopters.
"Currently, we are categorically relying on the military. I don't remember having four helicopters on standby in recent years. This is wonderful, I thank the Bulgarian army for this high level of readiness and support. I am convinced that it is time to think very seriously about how to build an aviation unit for the fire department. We must note that our colleagues from the Bulgarian army have other tasks. This one is auxiliary. And Bulgaria also needs airplanes. Airplanes that can carry a larger amount of water and are extremely effective in field, forest, and low-lying fires. Our firefighters are familiar with such a practice. We have worked together with our colleagues from Spain and France. So we need to sit down and work on this idea. To convince politicians that it is important for Bulgaria to have such a capacity so that we can protect our forests," said Nikolov.