TIRANA, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Albania was hit by a huge number of fires during this summer season as over 900 fires were registered in different regions of the country, Albanian Civil Emergencies' report showed Sunday.
Experts of this unit said in the report that the number of fires that broke out in many areas of the country was unprecedented while they noted that most of them were deliberate while only a few were set by the heat wave and prolonged drought that engulfed Albania during July, August 2017.
"Around 500 of these fires were managed by domestic structures of the firefighter services and Albanian Army personnel. Meanwhile, over 280 fires were a real threat for human life, properties and environment, requiring the support of central government operational structures," Shemsi Premci, head of Civil Emergencies told reporters Sunday while unveiling report's data.
Based on this situation, besides boosting mechanical and human capacities, Civil Emergencies have also demanded for the Albanian fire fighters service to be transformed like their counterpart services in Europe.
Meanwhile, Premci said that there were still many blazes raging across the country despite the cooling of temperatures.
Around 10 blazes were reported Saturday night and Sunday, Premci told the media while he also made a wrap up of fires' situation across Albania.
He noted that fires mostly broke out in the region of Shkodra, Lezha and Dibra (norther Albania) and Gjirokastra, Fier (southern Albania).
Fires have caused huge economic damage as many hectares of land, pasture, pine forests, etc have been totally destroyed.
In many regions, there were even some houses that were engulfed by flames. For this reason, the Albanian government decided last month to allocate a new fund to cover such losses.
On the other hand, Greece and Italy sent water-dropping helicopters to assist Albanian firefighting teams to battle the fires.
