Prime Minister Zoran Zaev visited the site of the Global shopping mall, built in Strumica during his term as Mayor, which suffered a major fire yesterday.

The entire ground floor and large parts of the upper floors were badly damaged in the blaze, and dozens of stores have been destroyed. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Firefighters needed four hours to put off the fire using the antiquated equipment they have, and Strumica Mayor was forced to call on the neighboring cities to supply help.

Strumica was hit by a serious disaster, a fire that struck in the late hours yesterday. The entire shopping mall was threatened as were other homes in the densely populated part of the city. You saw how strong the blaze was. The damage is enormous, there are irreparable economic damage to businesses, and the marketplace. It’s good that there are no injuries and lives lost. To all who lost their livelihood here, Global is the center of the spirit of Strumica, Christmas is coming, days of solidarity, and we will all help to rebuild the economic life here, Zaev said.

Zaev’s political career was linked to the mall – he was charged with abuse of office after he approved the contract to have it built on land that was due to be returned to the families that owned it before the communist nationalization programs, and he gave the contract to a business partner, greatly undervaluing the land that the municipality was giving away for the deal. Zaev was pardoned for this case by then President Branko Crvenkovski in 2008.