Suva Planina Wildfire Enters Fourth Day, 34 Fires in Serbia

Serbia’s Interior Ministry Sector for Emergency Situations announced this morning, September 7, 2026, that 34 open air wildfires are currently active across the country. Firefighters and rescuers responded to 240 interventions in the previous 24 hours, 204 of them fire related.

Most of the firefighting effort remains concentrated on Suva Planina, where crews are now in their fourth consecutive day of battling the blaze. According to the Interior Ministry, more than 170 firefighters and other personnel are deployed on the ground, backed by 46 vehicles and three helicopters. The nistv.rs portal reports that more than 100 people have taken part in the effort, including residents of nearby villages. An Ilyushin firefighting aircraft had flown nine sorties by this morning.

The fire is currently most active around the Devojacki Grob pass, at roughly 1,300 meters above sea level, and near Trem, the highest peak of Suva Planina at 1,810 meters. It started in a beech forest above the villages of Veta and Kosmovac before crossing the mountain ridge. It is now spreading in three directions, toward the municipality of Gadzin Han, the city municipality of Niska Banja, and the municipality of Bela Palanka. Its advance toward the Nis side of the mountain and the Bojanine Vode excursion site has been halted.

Srdjan Mitrovic, head of the Emergency Situations Department in Nis, told reporters on the scene that weather conditions had been “somewhat more favorable for firefighting since this morning.” Asked about wind direction, which has so far been the biggest obstacle for firefighters, he said it was “practically impossible to predict.”

Because the terrain is so inaccessible, firefighters, forestry workers and local residents are carrying water to the fire line in backpacks, for kilometers along steep mountain trails. As a result, firefighting is limited to daylight hours, with no work done overnight. No injuries have been reported, and according to the Ministry, settlements and infrastructure are not currently under threat.

A separate fire also reignited in the Deliblato Sands around 11 a.m., fanned by wind gusts of up to 70 kilometers per hour. No settlements are threatened there, and the Interior Ministry says the fire is under control.

Overnight, around 3 a.m., a fire was also reported at a landfill in Jovanovac, near Kragujevac. It threatened nearby homes and facilities belonging to the company Yanfeng but was contained. A fire on the Gramada pass near Svrljig was also contained, with no risk of further spread. Last night, firefighters extinguished a blaze at the Irmovo farm estate in Kisac, which had burned processed oil and several pieces of agricultural machinery.

Serbian Newspapers previously reported that the fire from Suva Planina had crossed into the municipality of Gadzin Han, when the Ilyushin aircraft was deployed for the first time. Four days on, the Interior Ministry is still counting a double digit number of active fire spots across the country.