The arrival of the warmer weather along with strong winds has led to a fire hazard nationwide, especially in central and southern Estonia.

In the Viljandi County case, the bog, near the village of Parika, continued to burn through Monday, fanned by strong winds, while rescuers continually found new fire spots while fighting the blaze.

"We got the call at 4 p.m. (on Monday - ed.) that a peat bog was on fire. As of now, the fire front has moved forward more than a hundred meters. Due to strong winds, it spread quite quickly across the peat field. We have now found out that there are also some fire spots in the [nearby] forest. We cannot state at present that fire has been contained, but we have rescue teams from eight stations, specialized equipment involved, and both a field commander and an operations commander on site. In short, the highest level of response," Marek Posti, field commander of the Southern Rescue Center (Lõuna päästekeskus), said Monday.

By 6 p.m. on the Monday, the Rescue Board had raised the fire level severity to its highest, at level four.

The area affected is estimated to be around 18 hectares.

Firefighting efforts may continue into Tuesday, Posti said Monday evening.

At the same time, emergency crews are dealing with extensive fires in Põlva and Tartu counties as well.

On Saturday alone, rescuers were called out to 16 grass and forest fires, mostly caused by campfires or grilling. The most unusual of these, at least in terms of location, was on Donquixote Island, which is in a quarry lake in Saku municipality and which required units from Jüri, Kesklinn, and Nõmme, along with volunteers from Rae. Extinguishing the grass fire necessitated landing on the island by boat; the water supply was ensured using motor pumps from the quarry.

No injuries have been reported from any of the recent wildfires.

Guidelines on what to do when discovering a wildfire are available in English from the Rescue Board (Päästeamet) here.

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