Extreme Risk of Fire in 5 Bulgarian Regions on Sunday

Bulgaria's weather service has issued the strongest alert for a risk of wildfires in five of the country's twenty-eight regions.

The regions concerned are mostly in Nothern Bulgaria (Pleven, Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse and part of Silistra), along with Haskovo in the south.

Separately, a high degree of risk has been announced for several other regions, mainly in the north (Lovech, Gabrovo, Razgrad, Varna) but also Stara Zagora and Sliven in the south, according to the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH)'s website.

Official estimates suggest some 20 000 decares of forest area have been ravaged by blazes over the past ten days, an area nearly as big as the one affected between January and mid-August.

Nearly 400 fires affecting woodland have broken on since the year began, a firefighters official told bTV station on Saturday. A vast part of them (90%) were caused by human activity and particularly by stubble burning or trimming in nearby farm fields.