The reason for the continuing large fire that broke out Thursday in Armenia’s Vayots Dzor Province is still unknown.

Director of the Crisis Management Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES), Hovhannes Khangeldyan, told Armenian News-NEWS.am from on location that there is no preliminary information yet on what could have caused this major fire.

“The [firefighting] activities have become quite complicated because a light wind has started, which contributes the spread of fire,” he added: “There is even a place where there is no way at all to bring the [firefighting] equipment closer.”

As per the MES official, even though the fire is put out for the most part, there are areas where the extinguished fire had restarted.  

As reported earlier, the minister of emergency situations is overseeing the firefighting efforts, and the minister of nature protection is also at the scene.

The Crisis Management Center had received an anonymous call, on Thursday at 6:50pm, informing that a grass-covered area was on fire nearby Artavan village in Vayots Dzor Province.

As of Friday 2pm, the surface area of the grass and forests that are burning there was approximately 250 hectares.