The Authority for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring has extended its warning of danger of vegetation fires. The yellow code, now in force until 31 July, no longer covers just a few areas but most of the country — and therefore the Ungheni district as well. The reason is the drought that has set in this summer, and the warning says so plainly:
Because of the precipitation deficit, the exceptional danger of vegetation fires persists across most of the territory and is spreading to districts in the north and south of the country. Authority for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, warning of 22 July 2026
This is the second danger window in a row: the previous code covered 18–22 July, and this one extends and widens it to ten days. The body that issues the warning is the successor of the State Hydrometeorological Service, reorganised by the Government; its scale of codes runs from yellow — potentially dangerous phenomena — to orange and red.
Why it matters right now in Ungheni
The Ungheni district is in the middle of the harvest campaign, and after the combines come the stubble fields — the easiest ground there is to set alight. Add the bank of the Prut, with its dry reeds and the beaches where barbecues are lit, and the orchards and shelterbelts scorched by the heat. In such a landscape, a single spark — a cigarette butt, a machinery fault, a fire left unattended — can start a blaze that is hard to stop.
What the law says
Many householders believe that burning weeds or stubble on their own land is a private matter. It is not. Burning stubble and dry vegetation on fields, along roadsides and in shelterbelts is prohibited by the Environmental Protection Law — in any season, all the more so under a yellow code.
Breaking it does not come cheap. The Contravention Code penalises the open-field burning of plant residue of any kind with a fine of 200 to 300 conventional units for an individual — that is, 10,000–15,000 lei — or community service. For a company, the fine rises to 600–800 conventional units, between 30,000 and 40,000 lei, with the possible suspension of its activity. The law is enforced by firefighters, environmental inspectors and local authorities.
How real the risk is
The figures show the danger is not theoretical. During last year’s harvest campaign, firefighters put out 33 fires, which affected 162.5 hectares of grain and 4.1 hectares of industrial crops, most of them in wheat fields. And the main cause was not nature but people: more than a third of the fires — 36.4% — started from fire lit while burning nearby waste and dry vegetation, followed by mechanical faults in equipment. On a single day this summer, on 8 July, crews responded to 16 vegetation fires across the country, which consumed some 35 hectares in all.
What to do
The firefighters’ recommendations are simple and addressed to everyone: do not light fires in open spaces, near dry vegetation or on farmland; do not set fire to grass, reeds or plant residue; do not throw cigarette butts into areas with dry vegetation. Anyone who spots a fire should call 112 immediately.
For farmers in the middle of the harvest, IGSU has a set of concrete measures: dividing large fields into sectors of no more than 30 hectares, marked out by mown and ploughed strips; fitting combines with tested extinguishers; refuelling machinery only at least 100 metres from the fields; and a ban on fire or smoking near crops. These are rules that, if followed, turn a dry field from a serious danger into a manageable risk — for as long as the yellow code lasts, and afterwards.