Mountain Fires in Romania, Fought with Rudimentary Means

Plastic bags filled with tap-water, waiting to be loaded onto the aircraft

Plastic bags filled with tap-water, thrown off helicopters, shovels and brooms. This is what Romanian fire-fighters and forest rangers are using in the battle against the forest fires that have been raging since the 20th of July, at high altitudes, in the Carpathian mountains. In the Bucegi Natural Reservation, on Monday alone the helicopter flew 11 sorties, at each of them being only able to deliver 35 bags full of water, the equivalent of half a ton, over the burning vegetation. Fire-fighters on the ground keep filling the plastic bags with water, loading them onto the craft and then crossing their fingers that the pilots don’t miss the target. Right next to the flames, other fire-fighters are trying to put out the flames with brooms and shovels, since the fire engines simply can not make it to the scene.