On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence of Albania announced that it has achieved full containment of the fire hotspots in Shëngjin, while emergency teams continue working to extinguish them. The firefighting teams are being supported by members of the Armed Forces, the Police, local structures, and two Canadair aircraft from Italy.
A day earlier, the situation in Shëngjin worsened as flames engulfed a tourist complex in the area known as Rana e Hedhun. The fire reached the coastline.
“Fortunately, there were no injuries, only minimal damage to businesses in the area of the fire, including two beach bars and the roof of a house,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
In addition to Shëngjin, it was reported that a difficult situation has also arisen over the city of Tepelena, where, according to the Ministry of Defence, “the fire has gone out of control due to strong winds”, which facilitate the spread of the flames.
The Ministry of Defence stated that intensive efforts are being made to extinguish several other fire hotspots in the village of Zavalinë in the Elbasan municipality and in the Viroi Lake area in the Gjirokastër municipality.
On Wednesday morning, authorities in Shëngjin reported that the fire situation is improving. The Prefecture of Lezhë announced that during the night, several fire hotspots that flared up from Saturday afternoon were extinguished.
“For today, all firefighting resources that were present the previous day will operate, along with 300 Armed Forces personnel and around 100 municipal forces. Operations are ongoing on the ground to extinguish any remaining fire hotspots [burning stumps],” said the Prefecture of Lezhë.
In addition to the firefighting forces, the Cougar helicopter from the Ministry of Defence of Albania and two Canadair aircraft from Italy have been deployed as part of the support from the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
Albania has about 147 firefighting vehicles, 1,300 personnel, and two Cougar helicopters, which, according to authorities, are insufficient to handle the fire situation during the summer.
