Ibar Gorge Wildfire Burns 150 Hectares, Villages Go Dark

A wildfire in Serbia’s Ibar Gorge burned through roughly 150 hectares of pine forest and low brush on August 6, and power was cut to part of a village near Usce as a result. The fire is burning along the stretch from Maglic to Polumir and on the Zaracke Mountains above Usce and Seoce. More than 100 members of fire and rescue units from Usce, Vrnjacka Banja and Kraljevo are on the ground, backed by a MUP helicopter unit.

“About 80 hectares of pine forest and around 70 hectares of low brush have been engulfed by the fire,” said Dejan Seizovic, head of the Department for Emergency Situations in Kraljevo. He added that “we managed to save the houses from danger, and the residents are now safe.”

The fire has been brought under control at several locations. It remains critical near Seoce, where the flames have spread into the neighboring pine forest.

Which Villages Are at Risk

The fire line is close to settlements in the Ibar valley. At risk are:

• Sumarak
• Seoce
• Polumir
• Pustopolje
• Cerje

Emergency evacuations have been ordered from some of these locations. Residents in the Ibar valley have been living in fear for more than 24 hours. The terrain is inaccessible, so heavy equipment cannot reach the fire on the steepest sections. Firefighters there are going in on foot, carrying backpack water tanks.

Why Was the Power Cut in Villages Near Usce?

The outages are preventive, meant to reduce the risk of fire reaching power lines. Parts of Polumir, Pustopolje, the Ibar valley and Cerje are without electricity. As a result, mobile phone base stations in those areas are also down, leaving residents without a way to communicate at the moment they need it most.

One resident of Seoce described the night before today.

We have no electricity, no phones. The situation is very hard, we can barely breathe from the smoke. We haven’t slept at all, we’re afraid to spend the night not knowing whether the fire will spread. Everything is dry from the heat, it takes only seconds. Our houses are in danger.

Wind overnight and high daytime temperatures are making the firefighting effort harder. Air support is therefore critical. A MUP helicopter has been dispatched toward Studenica.

Deliblatska Sands Burning for the Second Time This Summer

While the Ibar Gorge burns, a fire in the Deliblatska Sands has spread across about 300 hectares of pine forest. More than 80 firefighters and workers from the Vojvodinasume public company are battling the blaze in the special nature reserve, supported by a MUP helicopter. Strong wind is hampering the effort there as well.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said homes and lives in the Deliblatska Sands are not currently at risk. Dacic also announced that members of the Sector for Emergency Situations and the MUP Helicopter Unit, who had been deployed to fight fires in Spain, were heading to the sands the same day. That group includes Helicopter Unit commander Nenad Nedic and head of the Sector for Emergency Situations Luka Causic.

We wrote about the sands less than three weeks ago, when a fire broke out a kilometer from July’s blaze site. Same reserve, same type of pine stand, a second fire in a short span. The area now burning is measured in hundreds of hectares, and since the reserve is protected natural land, the damage to the stand will not be visible in days but in years.

The operations team of the national Emergency Situations Staff met again today to review the situation across the country due to high temperatures and unfavorable weather conditions.

If the wind holds, both fronts could stay active overnight. Forest fires can be reported to the fire service at 193.