Upon a state of crisis being proclaimed by the government, President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova issued an order to engage 100 Army members and two MI 8/17 helicopters in the fight against wildfires. Meeting the requirements of 18th July, besides the previously engaged personnel, additional 200 members joined the efforts to extinguish the fires.
Army service members from the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Battalion, as well as the Training and Doctrine Command and the Air Force WING, responsibly and devotedly engage in putting out the fires on all locations designated by the Crisis Management Centre and in close cooperation with other entities involved.
Thus far, the Army has been involved on all locations labeled as critical and on inaccessible terrain. In the course of the day, complying to the requirements and the plan of engagement by the Crisis Management Centre, the Army is being engaged in extinguishing the wildfire at villages Jabolchishte and Drenovo, peak Lisec (municipality of Chaska) and villages Dragoevo, Selce, Puhche and Piperevo (Shtip municipality), and Tazhevo, Makedonski Brod, while operating from air using helicopters in the region of Chashka municipality, Gabrovnik and Mokreni.
Until now, the Air WING helicopters have been engaged in combating fires from air by throwing more than 200 tons of water, but the unit, through their Operation Centre, also supports the coordination of activities of helicopters from Turkiye, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.
Furthermore, at the Army Training Area ‘Krivolak’, the personnel engaged in the area have put the fires under control, and a portion of the personnel is on ‘stand by’, prepared for swift engagement to protect vital infrastructure at the Training Area if necessary.
Army’s level of training in combating wildfires is in accordance with the plans for training, where all units together with the territorial Fire brigade carry out Training in fire-fighting and handling fire-fighting equipment, putting out fire with tanks and other special equipment in possession of the Fire brigade whose main purpose is dealing with fires.
Army’s supply with firefighting equipment and tools is in accordance with its mission and tasks, so our members have the basic firefighting gear on disposal, such as, backpack fire pumps, fire swatters, and other tools.
When engaging the Army in fire-fighting operations, all safety procedures are followed and all measures for safety and personal protection of Army members are taken.
Army’s good communication and coordination skills, hierarchical structure combined with disciplined attitude and sufficient training, has provided valuable advantage in its engagement, so far, to extinguish forest fires. Their ability to skillfully integrate with other involved entities on terrain has considerably increased the efficiency of the efforts to put out the wildfires.
