Wildfire inferno grows: More than 15 houses burnt down in the village of Otets Paisievo in Plovdiv district

Firefighters and volunteers are battling wildfires in several places in the country on July 17. The situation is extremely serious in the village of Otets Paisievo in Plovdiv district, Southern Bulgaria and two villages of Bogdan and Karavelovo in Karlovo municplaity, which, after the big floods two years ago, are currently struggling with a fire disaster.

15 houses in the villa area of Otets Paisievo village have completely burned down and the fire is engulfing more buildings. Smoke has covered the entire forest area in the area, access to it completely banned. It is not clear how many buildings are affected.

People from the villa area were evacuated several hours ago. The wind is blowing in the direction of Otets Paisievo and spreading the flames. Helicopters have been directed to the village.

The fire started from a place where a fire had flared up again a few days ago, but was put out. At the moment the danger is much greater.

"It is a risky situation here, given that populated areas are threatened. In general, the situation in the country is very severe," said firefighting services director Alexander Dzhartov.

"The situation is quite complicated, the fire occurred up in the village's villa zone - about 20-30 villas and houses burned. People are being evacuated. Two bulldozers are making fire lines to stop the spreading of the wildfire. Firefighters are on the scene, the services are responding fully adequately," said Atanas Tashkov - Deputy Governor of Plovdiv.

Fires continue to break out in the country every day in new places, destroying farmland, forests and vegetation. In Svilengrad region alone, more than 100,000 decares of pastures, apiaries and vineyards have been destroyed.