North Macedonia fights a dozen wildfires after weeks of hot weather

Firefighters in North Macedonia fought a dozen wildfires fanned by heavy winds for a third day on Wednesday, and hot temperatures and dry weather also fueled smaller blazes across Greece and the Balkans, officials said.

One fire was spreading in the municipality of Negrevo near the Bulgarian border and another around Kumanovo near Serbia, said Goran Stojanovski at North Macedonia's centre for crisis management.

"Because of the high temperatures, the vegetation is dry and the soil is very hot, which is making our work more difficult," he said.

North Macedonia's southerly neighbor Greece has long struggled with wildfires caused by rising temperatures and sporadic rainfall that scientists link to climate change.

A series of blazes also started further north across the Balkans this week following weeks of heat and little rain. On the western side of mainland...