Late last night thanks to the Skopje Fire Brigade, the fire around Lake Mladost near Veles, which raged for about eight hours and threatened the city, was extinguished.

A large area of pine forest and dry grass has been burnt and the material damage is immense. Firefighters from Veles, Sveti Nikole, Stip, Kavadarci, Negotino and Skopje, as well as two aircrafts from the Protection and Rescue Directorate and one Army helicopter, participated in the fire fighting.

They were also assisted by around 150 employees of the Public Enterprise “Macedonian Forests” and hundreds of employees of the Veles Public Utility Company “Derven” with tankers, members of the Army.

Police say they will release details of the perpetrators of the blaze, which was caused by negligence. Four construction workers from Veles who had been using an angle grinder were arrested Monday under suspicion of causing the fire.

A total of 400 hectares of forest have been burnt, of which a 50-year-old pine forest of 200 hectares and as much grass, said Zoran Gjeorgiev, director of PE Macedonian Forests.

Experts warn that the forests around Lake Mladost will need as many as fifty years to be renewed.

Macedonian Railways say that train traffic on the Veles – Kocani route is stopped because hundreds of railway thresholds were burnt by the fire and experts have yet to decide whether the railway section to Kocani is usable. The firefighting train also participated in fighting the fire.