33 hours ago, Ivan heard the sirens in the village of Ploski. Today the man returned to his home.
„The first evacuation was difficult because you know how it is, it happened very quickly. You can't just leave everything here and decide to leave. The house was built in 1935, I built the extension 20-22 years ago, and to leave everything like that. Especially people who have goods - where can you take these goods, he explains to BTV.
Ivan thanks the firefighters for saving the village, but he is worried about the burned-out forest. One of the volunteers - also a local - describes the scene as apocalyptic.
“We managed to control the situation thanks to the rain, otherwise the whole of Pirin would have gone“, points out Lyuben Trenkov. “I am a local, I grew up here as a child, we grew up here in the forest, which no longer exists“.
Bulldozers have made clearings to cut off the path of the fire towards the village. But Lyuben believes that not all available equipment was deployed in time.
“They are missing the point of a 15 km asphalt road with 50 available fire departments at the headquarters with bulldozers - this, in my opinion, is the incompetence of the headquarters“, he points out.
“Nearly 200 people participated in the fight every day - firefighters, foresters, employees of the Pirin National Park and volunteers“, says the head. Commissioner Alexander Dzhartov.
However, one of them remains unemployed because he was urgently called to a voluntary formation, although he notified me of his absence.
„The boss came to me and asked me the question more than once: „Is the fire more important to you than work?“, explains Shteryo Siderov to BTV.
“I turned away, apparently this irritated him and he became aggressive, he slapped me and insults followed, leave, go away”, he also pointed out.
The company explained in a written position:
“It is not true that the worker Mr. Shteryo Siderov was attacked by the employer. In the case of Mr. Siderov, both he personally and the relevant municipality did not notify in advance that on July 29, 2025, he would participate in extinguishing a fire. Everything else is arbitrary. ” “According to the volunteering ordinance, we notify employers in writing usually the next day and we have free time”, specifies Yavor Hadzhiev from the National Association of Volunteers in Bulgaria.
The Labor Inspectorate specifies that they have carried out an inspection, during which it was established that the mayor of Petrich had notified the company in writing.