The mayor of Costuleni pulled out his phone and filmed: the village dump was on fire again. “A few days ago, Costuleni Town Hall warned residents not to set fire to dry vegetation and not to leave fires unattended. Unfortunately, today we again faced a fire,” reads the message accompanying the footage, posted on Tuesday, 8 July. The tone is one of exasperation: “Those who cause such fires must be identified and held accountable under the law.”
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It is not an isolated case. On the same day, Cioropcani Town Hall published its own warning to residents — not to burn dry grass, plant residues and rubbish, not to light fires near houses, forests and fields, and to dial 112 at the first sign of a fire. Two town halls in the district, on the same day, with the same message.
It is not today’s heat to blame
It is worth stating plainly, because it is easy to assume the opposite: these fires do not break out because of the current heat. In early July the weather cooled somewhat — on Tuesday, in the district, temperatures were around 24–29 degrees, with showers, while in Cornești the thermometers even read 16 degrees in the afternoon. What was left behind is vegetation dried out by the heatwave at the end of June, when the centre and north of the country reached orange code, with +36…+38 degrees. On such a dry carpet, a single spark — or rubbish set alight on purpose — starts a fire that can quickly spread to houses, orchards and fields.
The phenomenon is widespread: in the past 24 hours alone, firefighters of the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations put out 16 dry-vegetation fires across the country, over about 35 hectares, according to a statement of 8 July. Ungheni district does not appear in that day’s tally — but the Costuleni case and the town halls’ warnings show that the problem is here too.
What a fire lit “to get rid of the rubbish” costs
The Costuleni mayor’s frustration is backed by law. Burning plant residues in open fields is an offence: for an individual, the fine is 200–300 conventional units — that is 10,000–15,000 lei (one conventional unit is worth 50 lei) — or unpaid community service. For a legal entity, fines reach up to 40,000 lei. Inspections are carried out by IGSU, the Environmental Protection Inspectorate and local authorities; in 2025 alone, more than 273 official reports were drawn up nationwide, with fines exceeding 1.25 million lei.
The message, then, is twofold. Practical: do not burn dry vegetation and rubbish, do not leave fires unattended, call 112 if you see flames. And legal: the act is not a “seasonal clean-up” but an offence that can empty your pockets faster than you think — and one that, in dry years, can turn a dump into a danger for the whole village.
The Costuleni fire and the Cioropcani warning come from the official announcements of the two town halls. The tally of vegetation fires and the call to 112 are from the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations; the weather data — from the State Hydrometeorological Service. The amount of the fines is that provided by the Contravention Code for burning plant residues, as communicated by IGSU. A tally of vegetation fires strictly for Ungheni district is not published.