Fire in Bulgaria’s Rila National Park brought under control
Firefighters were continuing to their efforts to extinguish the blaze in Bulgaria’s Rila National Park on July 26 after bringing it under control the day before.
The head of the Southwestern Forestry Unit, Damyan Damyanov, said on July 25 that there was no danger to the population of the area, Rila Monastery or the rest of the primeval forest in the protected area.
By the evening of July 25, still on fire was an area of about 200 to 300 metres on the north-western part of the outbreak.
The fire affected an area of about 15ha in difficult to reach, high altitude parts of the mountain range.
Close to 300 firefighters and two helicopters took part in battling the blaze, which began about two days ago. Human negligence was suspected to have been the cause of the fire, possibly by hikers going from one hut to another in the area and having lit an overnight camp fire on the way, reports said.
Prosecutors have opened a pre-trial investigation.
Damyanov said that observation would continue for several days to prevent new outbreaks of the fire.
(Screenshot via BNT)