Fire Season

Duty officer, voivodeship crisis-management centre (Lesser Poland)

It is peak fire season. A wildfire is burning in the Dulowa Forest west of Krakow and the 12-hour forecast pushes the front straight across critical infrastructure: two hospitals and the Chechlo water intake sit inside the threat window. Worse, a hidden cascade — the front reaches the Trzebinia substation, and losing it cuts power to the Dulowa pumping station that feeds those same hospitals. One provincial road, DW-780, is both the fire's path and the only evacuation corridor. The duty officer has one shift to turn a map full of red into a defensible plan.