At the beginning of October, the total area covered by fires on peat bogs in the region reached 15 hectares. \n \nIt was burning in three districts — in Starovyzhivskyi, near the village of Lisniaky, in Kamin-Kashyrskyi, in the Vovcha Hora tract, in Liubeshivskyi, near the village of Berezychi. For almost a week, firefighters of the SDPCh-8 of the city of Kamin-Kashyrskyi were eliminating the peat ignition near the village of Khoteshiv, in the Zarichky tract, although the fire was localized already on the first day after its detection. For more than a week, Kamin-Kashyrskyi firefighters were subduing a fire on the peat bog near the village of Huta-Borovenska, where about two hectares of peat fields were engulfed by fire. To eliminate the disaster, personnel of the district department of the regional Emergency Situations Management were involved, as well as forestry workers. \n \nExtinguishing fires on peat bogs this year was complicated by an unforeseen circumstance — near the village of Lisniaky in Starovyzhivskyi district, nine shells from the Great Patriotic War exploded one after another over the course of a week. These days we visited there. \n \nEven on the approach to the village, the smell of smoke is caught in the air. People say that especially in the morning and evening, when it is damp and the smoke spreads low, it feels as if the conflagration is literally in the village, and not two kilometers from it. Our guide was a forest ranger, as a master of the forest of the Starovyzhivskyi forestry, Oleksandr Ostapuk, is called in the village. He was just riding his motorcycle on his rounds: from the first day the ignition occurred until now, the danger remains — the fire could creep up to the forest that borders the peat bog. \n \nBack on September 21, a fire broke out. They say cattle were grazing that day from the side of the village of Smidyn, so maybe the shepherds made a fire and did not extinguish its remains. Another version — someone was burning stalks on their plot. Literally within minutes the fire spread over a large distance, because this year's autumn, surprisingly warm and dry, has made the grass and stalks dry as gunpowder. \n \n— If it weren't for this already plowed plot, — Oleksandr Ostapuk points to the boundary where the fire stopped, — then they would have been "catching" the fire in the village, because everywhere is peat bog. \n \nThe fire occupied about eight hectares. Round-the-clock duty was organized. Moreover, peat bogs burn in a particularly insidious way — there seems to be no fire, but the peat smolders. And already on the day we visited here, one could visually determine that in places it had burned out to a depth of more than half a meter. Approaching the burned area is risky, because one can fall through. Our photo correspondent shared his impressions after he approached the conflagration for shooting: he said it was an unpleasant feeling, because the ground beneath his feet seemed to be moving. And also on the grass along the peat bog destroyed by the fire, there are a lot of caterpillars — all living things were saving themselves. \n \nOnce there were continuous swamps here. About forty years ago, thanks to land reclamation, good harvests of beets, potatoes, and grain crops were grown on the swamps. When the collective farm ceased to exist, here became "people's shares." This year's harvest has been gathered. Only on one of the beds next to the conflagration, cabbage is still growing. Now it is even hard to suppose when it will again be possible to sow or plant something on these "people's shares." \n \nIn Volyn they are waiting for rain so that winter crops can be sown. In Lisniaky they are waiting for rain, because only it, probably, will finally subdue the fire on the peat bog. In a conversation with the village residents, we heard that in 1944 the front line passed beyond Lisniaky for four months. Hanna Pysaruk remembers that time well. On one side of the swamp, closer to the village of Myzove, stood the Germans, on the other — our troops, "shells whizzed day and night." Some of them, obviously, fell into the swamp and never exploded. Now they have reminded people of themselves. \n \nThe day before yesterday, after calling the professional fire station of the Starovyzhivskyi district department of the UMNS, I asked what the situation was on the peat bog beyond Lisniaky. Inspector Mykola Ivchyk said: \n \n— Everything is still the same so far. The peat bog is smoldering. Daily duty and monitoring of the situation are needed. \n \nBy the way, Mykola Ivchyk said that the year before last, a fire on the peat bog near the village of Yarevyshche covered an even larger area — about twenty hectares. But there, shells were not exploding... \n \nKateryna ZUBCHUK