Vegetation fires expand

The vegetation fires have spread out. On September 22, the firefighters needed over four hours to extinguish a fire that engulfed hectares of dry vegetation in Ghidighici town that forms part of Chisinau municipality. Liliana Puscasu, press officer of the Civil Protection and Emergencies Service, has told Info-Prim Neo that the situation is alarming. During the last 24 hours alone, the firefighters dealt with 59 fires. The Service’s head Mihail Harabagiu ordered that the district subdivisions prepare intervention teams and equip them with everything they need – water tanks, extinguishers, sand, etc. The Civil Protection and Emergencies Service recommends that the uncultivated land and the wooded areas or settlements should be separated by plowed areas so as not to allow the fires to expand. Open fire in the wooded recreational areas is banned. The Service also calls on the people to observe the fire safety rules and warns that any source of fire left without supervision can cause large-scale fires. The vegetation fires are the most frequent and they often spread to forests. Over the last 30 days, the firefighters fought to contain over 500 vegetation fires. During a year, this figure was over 4 000. Weather forecasters issued a yellow code warning against fires for the period between September 22 and 28. This is a class 5 phenomenon when the probability of fires is the highest.