Suva Planina Fire Rages for Third Day, Helicopters Arrive

The wildfire on Suva Planina is burning for a third straight day. The fire remains active today in the municipality of Gadzin Han, and it is strongest around the Devojacki Grob pass, at roughly 1,300 meters above sea level.

Flames are also burning on Trem, the highest peak of Suva Planina, at 1,810 meters. No firefighters are currently there, since access to the peak is difficult.

Three Ministry of Interior helicopters are joining the firefighting effort today for the first time. They are expected to land at the Nis airport around 11:30 a.m., then head toward the affected area.

More than 50 firefighters are already deployed on the mountain, and members of the Mountain Rescue Service are joining them as of this morning.

Srdjan Mitrovic, head of the Emergency Situations Sector Department in Nis, said weather conditions this morning are somewhat more favorable for firefighting than in previous days.

The terrain is extremely inaccessible.

Mitrovic said this in comments to RTS, an account carried by Tanjug and Telegraf. He noted that at higher elevations there are neither mountain roads nor water sources, which makes the firefighters’ work even harder.

A second fire, at the Gramada pass near Svrljig, has been contained today. There is no danger of it spreading further, but crews remain on site monitoring the situation. Suva Planina is blanketed in thick smoke.

How the fire started

The fire broke out on September 4 in a beech forest above the villages of Veta and Kosmovac, on the Bela Palanka side of the mountain, before spreading across the ridge. Srpske Novine previously reported that the flames had crossed into the municipality of Gadzin Han and that a Russian Ilyushin aircraft had taken part in aerial firefighting.

That aircraft, operated by the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center, has flown multiple missions over the mountain in recent days and continued firefighting again today.

Suva Planina stretches 45 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide. The renowned Serbian geographer Jovan Cvijic once called it the Alps of southern Serbia. That same terrain, steep and without access roads to the highest parts of the ridge, is what makes firefighting so difficult, since there is no water available there for refilling aircraft or ground crews.

Authorities say that, with the three Interior Ministry helicopters now on the scene, firefighting will continue until the fire across the entire ridge is brought under control.