site.btaFire Services Need to Adapt to New Realities as Bulgaria Faces Growing Wildfire Risks

Fire services need to adapt to new realities as Bulgaria faces growing wildfire risks, Chief Inspector Sarafov said in an interview with BTA. He is the head of the Prevention and Control Activity sector at the Regional Fire Safety and Population Protection Directorate in Blagoevgrad.

He said that there is a decrease of about 30% of fires in Blagoevgrad Region in the current month of June compared to 2024, but the prolonged heat and dry weather suggest that the current summer season will repeat last year's. In 2024, 1,500 fires occurred in Blagoevgrad Region, with the current data indicating a similar number of fires in 2025. "We are facing a new reality and we all need to show strength to adapt to it," Sarafov emphasized, adding that the fires that occurred in 2024 are about 200-300 more than in previous years.

Increased intensity and scale

For firefighters and all other institutions involved in extinguishing fires, however, it is not so much the increased number that matters, as the potential for each fire to become destructive, as the very high temperatures and dry weather stimulate such situations. Sarafov noted that such fires require days, sometimes weeks, to be extinguished, and a huge number of people, as well as equipment are involved in extinguishing them.

Firefighters in Blagoevgrad Region encountered such destructive elements in the summer of 2024, when three large fires broke out simultaneously. The area of ​​the affected forest, over 1.6 acres, is also indicative of the destructive power of the fire element. "In these three fires, the affected forest is 90% of these 1.6 acres," Sarafov pointed out, stressing that in previous years, on average, the territories destroyed by forest fires were between 100 and 200 acres, or eight times less compared to 2024.

International support for major blazes

Such elements involve a huge amount of forces and resources, and firefighters from all over the country, as well as aircraft from Spain, France and Sweden, participated in extinguishing them in 2024. For the first time, Bulgaria benefited in such a large volume from the assistance of the European Civil Protection Mechanism in the event of major fires, Sarafov emphasized. He recalled that aircraft under the mechanism were participating in extinguishing the fires in the Slavyanka mountain, near Senokos and near Mikrevo.

New tools and technology deployed

“We strive to be adequate to reality, to use all possibilities, not only of aircraft, but also mapping with GPS satellites under the Copernicus Programme of the European Union, which gives us the opportunity for a faster assessment of the fire. We have the opportunity through satellites to immediately target and see how the fire is developing and the direction of spread,” Sarafov said, adding that the Fire Safety and Population Protection General Directorate continues to equip itself with drones, which can also be used for reconnaissance before a fire breaks out, as well as for monitoring in the event of an elemental event. “We strive to implement all modern European practices related to extinguishing forest fires in our country,” Sarafov stressed.

Regarding the interaction between different countries in the European Union, he pointed out that an organization has already been created and an order has been issued by Chief Commissioner Alexander Dzhartov for the Bulgarian Module for Ground Fire Fighting to assist firefighters in Greece. The first team will consist of 20 people and will leave for Greece on July 1.