The danger of wildfires
The Romanian authorities are calling for responsibility, following the wildfires that have claimed lives.
Mihai Pelin, 10.03.2025, 14:00
The severe wildfires in recent days, affecting a large area of Romania, have led to the death and injury of several people. Dozens of violent fires have broken out since the beginning of the month, and the fire has also come close to people’s homes in several areas. The authorities have deployed impressive forces to fight the flames. The firefighters were helped by employees of other structures to extinguish the fires, some of them in hard-to-reach areas. They were involved in large-scale interventions in dozens of localities in seven counties. Intervening along the firefighters were also mountain rescuers, as well as pilots from the Ministry of Interior and Defense. The two Black Hawk helicopters of the General Aviation Inspectorate carried out dozens of launches part of which they dropped over 77 tons of water to put out the fires, and another helicopter carried out a reconnaissance mission.
At the same time, a Spartan aircraft of the Ministry of National Defense acted in support of the intervention forces, to extinguish the fires. The authorities are calling for responsibility and are telling people to stop burning plants on agricultural lands. At the same time, the authorities have drawn attention to the serious situation: 650 hectares burned in January, another 4,400 hectares in February, and this month, in the first eight days alone, 4,600 hectares have burned. In just three days, there were over 300 fires. According to the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, it is only the people who are to be blamed for these destructions. He explained that the wildfires did not break out due to meteorological phenomena.
Raed Arafat: “It is clear, at this point we cannot blame these forest fires to increased temperatures, to lightning. We can only attribute them to intentional actions by some people, who have either become accustomed to doing this for a long time, or some are doing it intentionally just to try to clear some fields or to set fire to an area where there is dry vegetation, which is why we consider most of them to be the result of intentional actions.”
On the other hand, Raed Arafat called on the local authorities to explain to people about the danger of vegetation fires, also asking for the help of priests. Preventing fires not only protects nature, but also contributes to the safety of the community, the authorities say. Military firefighters remind citizens that burning dry vegetation is prohibited by law. Failure to comply with the legal provisions is an offence and is punishable by fines of up to 15,000 lei (approx. 3,000 euros) for individuals and up to 100,000 lei (approx. 20,000 euros) for legal entities. In addition, farmers who do not comply with the burning ban may lose the direct or annual payments to which they are entitled. In some cases, they may be excluded from financial support for one or more consecutive years. (LS)
