Wildfire Breaks Out in Deliblato Sands Near July Site
The fire broke out around 2 p.m. near the site extinguished on July 22, spreading past 300 hectares by evening. Three Interior Ministry helicopters and over 80 firefighters are battling it.
A wildfire broke out in Deliblato Sands on Wednesday around 2 p.m., about a kilometer from the ground where a major blaze was put out on July 22. Driven by high temperatures and wind, the fire had burned through more than 300 hectares by evening. Unofficial reports from the scene say a pine forest near the village of Sumarak is burning.
Three helicopters and 32 firefighters from four towns
Assistant Interior Minister and head of the Emergency Situations Sector Luka Causic said extra forces were sent in as soon as the fire was reported. By evening he had a full rundown of what was on the ground.
More than 80 members of the Emergency Situations Sector, volunteer firefighting societies and Vojvodinasume are currently fighting the fire, while three Interior Ministry helicopters, a Kamov Ka32, an H215 Super Puma and an H145, have been engaged from the air. We also expect heavy machinery to arrive to cut firebreaks, so we can stop the fire from spreading further.
Firebreaks are the key word here. A bulldozer clearing a strip of vegetation leaves a bare lane the fire cannot cross, so the sands are defended with lines, not just water. The public company Vojvodinasume has made heavy machinery available, including two bulldozers. The Serbian Army is also expected to join in with personnel and equipment.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic laid out how the crews were deployed.
Thirty-two firefighter-rescuers from Kovin, Pancevo, Bela Crkva and Vrsac are on the ground with 12 vehicles, backed by firefighting and rescue units from Belgrade, Zrenjanin and Smederevo. Assistant Minister and head of the Emergency Situations Sector Luka Causic is also at the scene, directly coordinating the firefighting effort.
Those units come from the South Banat District, the towns that ring the sands. Reinforcements arrived from three other districts.
A third fire on the same ground in two weeks
The timeline is short and packed. A major fire in Deliblato Sands was contained and extinguished on July 22. Eleven days later, on August 2, a new fire broke out near Sumarak. The first blaze was contained on August 3 at about four hectares, the second at about two.
The new fire outgrew all of the earlier burn areas combined within a few hours, going from four and two hectares on Monday to more than 300 by Wednesday. The difference is not the fire itself but the conditions: the heat and the wind.
Why does the sands keep burning after two fires were already put out?
Causic did not dress up the reason. Serbia remains under extremely high temperatures, the risk of new fires is elevated, and the human factor remains the most common trigger. He repeated his appeal to citizens and mentioned what had happened that same day near Pozarevac.
Today, in the village of Lucica near Pozarevac, we had a tragic case in which a person died in a fire they themselves had started. That is the worst possible consequence of irresponsible behavior, and that is why I am once again calling on all citizens to exercise maximum caution.
Lighting open fires within 200 meters of a forest is banned, as we reported when that ban took effect. The measure is still in force today, and Deliblato Sands has shown twice in two weeks what happens when it is ignored.
By evening, authorities still had not announced that the fire was contained. The Interior Ministry said it would deploy all available resources until the fire is brought under control. What happens tomorrow depends on two things nobody on the ground controls: the temperature and the direction of the wind.
