In the Torockó Mountains, a nature conservation area of more than twenty hectares burned on Tuesday. Firefighters managed to control the flames after a six-hour effort.
Kőköz, located between Nagyenyed and Torockó in southern Transylvania, is one of the nature conservation attractions of the region, the three-kilometer-long rock gorge is the habitat of many protected species.
The firefighters of Fehér County were alerted to the fire that broke out in the nature reserve on Tuesday morning, the dry vegetation caught fire and the fire spread quickly due to the strong wind, the Romanian news agency Agerpres wrote. A stormy wind warning is in effect in several counties of Transylvania.
After a six-hour effort, the firefighters managed to control the flames by Tuesday afternoon, experts from the Nagyenyed Forestry Inspectorate also helped in extinguishing the flames.Alexandru Crişan, the spokesman of the Fehér County Emergency Inspectorate, said that the fire burned an area of more than twenty hectares, of which three hectares were deciduous forest, and the rest were pastures covered with shrubs and dry vegetation. The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Kőköz, rich in natural attractions, can be reached from Nagyenyed by road heading towards Torockó. The road leads between rock walls, and the Enyed stream also flows here.
In Transylvania and other regions of Romania, unattended stubble fires, which sometimes spread to protected areas, have been a growing problem in recent years. According to experts, many protected plants and animals become victims of irresponsible human behavior in this way.Although the authorities have significantly increased the amount of the fine that can be imposed in recent years, the phenomenon has not been curbed, as many farmers clean up their uncultivated land in this way. Last year, agricultural support was withdrawn from more than two hundred farmers in Hargita county because of illegal stubble fires.
Source: Sunday/MTI
Picture: Gábor Kiss
