The wildfire burning near Bulgaria’s southern town of Svilengrad is expanding, prompting all available fire services to be mobilized, it emerged on Friday evening.

The fire has engulfed 800 decares of forests while the strong wind hampers firefighters’ efforts to contain the blaze, the Fire Department reported.

Fifty officials of the special forces of the Forest Directorates and Forest Associations of Bulgaria’s towns of Kurdzhali, Haskovo and Svilengrad, have gathered together pooling efforts to restrict the fire.

Firefighters have focused their efforts on extinguishing the northern part of the blaze.

Earlier the blaze covered terrains of some 15 -20 000 decares in total, after which the southeastern and northwestern side of the fire were contained.

Fire crews are expected to continue battling the fire near Svilengrad during the night.
Meanwhile, two more wildfires continued burning nationwide.

A wildfire started Friday in the pine-forest above the monastery in Kremikovtzi neighborhood of Bulgarian capital Sofia, but is still  far from populated areas, reported BGNES.

Another blaze is destroying hundreds of decares of forests and valleys in the villages near the town of Vratsa, located at the foot of Bulgaria’s main mountain range Stara Planina. The fire is crawling towards the fields with sunflowers in the region, locals said.

“The fire is now creeping towards the mountain ridge and it has already covered a very large area,” said a local mayor, concerned that due to the strong wind and the jagged terrain, the blaze could not be stopped.

There have been no reports about casualties du to the wildfires.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!