Sunday is the third day that Croatian firefighting aircraft provide help to Israeli government.
Flight crews from the 93rd Air Base of the Croatian Air Force continued on Sunday, for the third day in a row, to use two Canadair CL-415 aircraft to fight wildfires in Israel, announced in a statement Croatian Ministry of Defence. The commander of the Fire Squadron and all Croatian crews in Israel, Colonel Davor Turković, said that the situation was improving.
“The first and the most comprehensive operations took place on the first day, but now the wind has subsided, and therefore there are less wildfires. In addition, there was an increase in the number of international firefighting forces, which now, in addition to Croatia, also include forces from Italy, Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, and it is expected that the French and the Americans will arrive soon. We work in mutual coordination and in our operations we want to be as efficient as possible and provide assistance to the most affected areas”, said Colonel Turković.
Pilot of Canadair CL-415, Major Diana Doboš, pointed out that her crew in the city of Haifa extinguished a number of minor and residual fires, as well as in Carmiel, north of Nazareth. “The situation was particularly serious near Jerusalem where the fire near power lines escalated by night and demanded the evacuation of part of the population. The conditions for firefighting were complex due to specific atmospheric conditions in this area, as well as due to the issues of organizing a large number of different aircraft involved in firefighting efforts. However, we have done the job the best we could, and the situation is improving”, said Major Doboš, who prior to transfer to the firefighting aircrew used to fly in the aerial acrobatics flying group Wings of Storm.
On the second day of action at the wildfire sites on Saturday, Croatian crews spent in the air 10 hours, fighting fires at the urban area of Nataf, using about 110 tons of water.
The decision on the provision of humanitarian assistance, by sending two Canadair aircraft to Israel, was made by the Croatian government on 23 November, at the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Damir Krstičević, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked for help.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Netanyahu visited Croatian aircrews and thanked them for their help.
