Fire Near Lebane Extinguished, 40 Houses Saved in Slisane
Serbia's Interior Ministry says firefighters have put out a wildfire that threatened the village of Slisane in the Lebane municipality for five days, saving around 40 homes.
Serbia’s Interior Ministry announced on August 29 that firefighters had extinguished a wildfire that had threatened the village of Slisane, in the Lebane municipality, for five days. The fire broke out on August 25 in the fields around the village, and by the time it was put out, firefighters had saved around 40 houses from the flames.
“Members of the Interior Ministry’s Emergency Situations Sector extinguished the fire that broke out on August 25 in the fields around the village of Slisane, in the Lebane municipality,” the Interior Ministry said in its statement.
A total of 65 firefighters took part in the effort, coming from Leskovac, Nis and Prokuplje. They were assisted by members of the Leskovac Volunteer Firefighting Society, public utility companies from Lebane and Bojnik, and staff from the local municipal administrations.
According to the Interior Ministry, eight people were evacuated in time. “There were no fatalities or injuries in the fire,” the statement said.
Twelve houses evacuated on the first night
The evacuation figures are not consistent across all reports. The Interior Ministry’s final statement cites eight people evacuated. Tanjug, citing RTS on the evening of August 25, the day the fire broke out, reported that residents had been evacuated from 12 houses because of thick smoke, even though the houses themselves had not been damaged by the fire. The discrepancy between the two figures is not explained in the available statements.
On that first night, around 30 firefighters from the Jablanica district were on the scene, backed up by reinforcements from Nis and Doljevac. The fire was spreading toward Mount Radan, and firefighters managed to stop it from advancing on one side of the village. The firefighting effort then continued for several more days, until the Interior Ministry’s August 29 statement confirmed the fire was out and that around 40 houses had been saved.
Srpske Novine also reported this summer on a fire at the Zeljkovac landfill near Leskovac, which burned for eight hours, one of a series of fires that hit the Jablanica area during August.
