"Statistics show that these 'burning' years, or periods of very high combustibility, recur every 12 years. The last such year was 2018, when just under three thousand hectares of forest land burned."

The number of forest fires in 2018 was also significant – 972 fires in total. Conversely, the least frequent occurrence of forest fires in the last six years was in 2017, when 265 hectares of forest burned and a total of 423 fires were recorded.

The State Forest Service is responsible for extinguishing forest fires. However, when fires are extensive, personnel from the State Fire and Rescue Service (VUGD) must also be called in. Just as happened this summer in Garkalne.

The head of the VUGD Operational Management Department, Jānis Grīnbergs, said: "Ten fire engines were involved in that particular incident. That means 30 firefighters plus some additional incident management on our part. A service unit always attends, which, in larger incidents requiring significant resource deployment, carries out coordination and management of the event."

Both state-owned and private forests are burning. The ratio is approximately half and half. Nowadays, it is possible to insure forests, but such a service is not particularly popular in Latvia.