Wildfires continue raging across Serbia

Wildfires continue raging across Serbia

No one was injured as the blaze damaged a cottage in the Dubovac holiday resort.

Some 600 hectares of forest and bushes are burning near Sokobanja in central Serbia.

"Due to strong winds the blaze is now out of control so firefighters from Sokobanja and Boljevac, along with locals, cannot prevent the fire from spreading," Sokobanja Firefighting Department head Bojan Todosić said.

“The four-kilometer long fire front fueled by high winds is advancing towards the Boljevac municipality. If not contained soon, it could jeopardize the village of Rtanj,” he said.

Despite attempts to localize wildfires on the slopes of Mount Stara with the assistance of Russia’s Ilyushin firefighter aircraft, the pine forest near the Rosomać village was scorched late Wednesday.

According to local firefighters, the blaze is currently contained.

Yesterday, the assistant Serbian interior minister for the sector of protection and rescue, Predrag Marić, told Beta that 2,000 fires had broken out in Serbia in the past five days.

Fires consumed large areas near Pirot, the Zavojsko Jezero lake, Svrljig and Vidlić in eastern Serbia, and in the Deliblatska in Vojvodina, but all of them are under control and should soon be extinguished, Marić said.

The general director of the Srbijašume public enterprise for forest management, Ješa Erčić, estimated Wednesday that the direct damage from fires in Serbia in the past six days, came to EUR 4.6mn.

He said this sum only included the expenses of engaging firefighters from the Srbijašume, and not the costs of the use of machinery, transportation of firemen, and destroyed or damaged equipment.

Erčić said that around 100 fires were currently burning in Serbia, and that the Russian Ilyshin-76 airplane began putting out the fire near the Zavojsko Jezero lake in eastern Serbia on July 25.

He warned that, on Stara Mountain near Pirot, only about 200 hectares belonged to the state, while the remaining 1,600 hectares were private property, and that, for this reason, a sector for emergency situations needed to be formed within the Serbian government to coordinate the fight against fire in the country.

Taking part in the fight against forest fires throughout Serbia in the past six days are 618 forest keepers employed in Srbijašume and around 400 members of the Gendarmerie.

The Institute for the Protection of Natural Resources in Serbia stated on Wednesday that the fires raging in protected areas would "leave unforeseen consequences" on this national treasure.

In the statement, the Institute said fire had also engulfed parts of the Stara Planina Natural Park, Đerdap national park and the national parks on Šar-planina and Tara mountains, the Jelova Gora natural reservation and the special reservations, Uvac and Deliblatska Peščara.

The Institute stated that, after the assessment of damage, an agreement will have to be reached on the further steps needed for repairing the damage to these natural resources.