Wildfires and forest litter fires burned over 8,000 hectares across Romania in the past four days, affecting areas in 15 counties (Alba, Bacau, Bihor, Bistrita-Nasaud, Brasov, Buzau, Caras-Severin, Gorj, Hunedoara, Harghita, Maramures, Mehedinti, Sibiu, Teleorman and Valcea), the Inspectorate General for Emergency Situations (IGSU) informs.

Unfortunately, the fires have had tragic consequences. In the last few days, two people lost their lives in Valcea and Maramures counties, and two others were injured and transported to the hospital for medical care, including a firefighter from Caras-Severin.

The number of interventions was very high, with firefighters being called to nearly 1,400 incidents to limit the spread of the flames.

In the past 24 hours alone, approximately 4,200 hectares were affected, while the fires continued to spread rapidly in several counties.

Over 1,300 military firefighters, forestry workers, teams from the Voluntary Emergency Situations Services, personnel from the General Aviation Inspectorate and the Ministry of National Defence, police officers, gendarmes and citizens who joined the firefighting efforts were mobilised to put out the fires.

To support firefighting operations, a Spartan aircraft made several water drops in Caras-Severin County, while two Black Hawk helicopters operated in Hunedoara and Valcea. The aerial crews will continue their missions on Monday, depending on the situation on the ground.

Currently, the fires remain active in five counties (Alba, Caras-Severin, Hunedoara, Mehedinti and Valcea), and intervention teams are working hard to extinguish the remaining hotspots and assess the damage. Authorities are calling on the public to follow fire prevention rules and avoid activities that could favour the spread of the fire.

Firefighters are reminding people that burning dry vegetation is strictly prohibited, as is using open flames for cooking in fire-prone areas, especially during strong winds.

The most common cause of wildfires is the human factor, either through intentional burning of fields and lands for cleaning, or negligence, such as not respecting fire prevention measures or discarding burning cigarette butts. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Eusebi Manolache; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)