Summer in Dalmatia often unfortunately means the presence of potentially damaging wildfires. A couple of summers ago, the Croatian coast was dominated by horrendous forest fires which caused untold material damage, some of which were suspected to have been started purposely. One such incident near Šibenik has thankfully been avoided.
This year, despite one serious fire which could have been devastating on Zrće beach, the weather hasn’t been as warm, the sun hasn’t (yet) been as fierce, and there haven’t been as many reports of wildfires taking hold in the dense, dry Mediterranean pine forests which cover the rocky Dalmatian hills.
Still, some fires have occurred, and one which took hold close to the historic city of Šibenik was thankfully put out with help from the Croatian Armed Forces.
As Morski writes on the 21st of July, 2019, one Canadair CL-415 and two Airtractor AT-802’s along with the members of the firefighting department of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia participated in an afternoon of fire fighting in Dobri Dolac-Zaton near Šibenik in Šibenik-Knin County on the afternoon of the 21st of July, 2019.
According to the first data from the field, about ten hectares of grass land, low vegetation and pine trees in the forest in the area near Šibenik have been burnt. The fire was initially attacked by 33 firefighters, who managed to localise it at around 18:20, as was reported from the County Centre 112.
From the beginning of this year’s fire-fighting season (June the 17th), including July the 20th, 2019, Croatian firefighting forces were engaged in extinguishing twelve fires (in Šibenik-Knin County, Split-Dalmatia County, Zadar County, Lika-Senj County, Istria County, and in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County).
Canadairs were recently used to deal with what would have been an absolutely devastating fire in Novalja on the island of Pag, and Orbiter 3B aircraft systems have been engaged eleven times so far.
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