Suva Planina Fire: No Air Support on Day Seven

The wildfire on Suva Planina is burning for a seventh day, and today, for the first time since it broke out, firefighters have no aerial support scheduled. Marko Radovanovic, commander of the Nis Fire and Rescue Brigade, says the situation this morning is largely unchanged from the day before.

According to him, the fire is slowly creeping down the mountain’s cliffs and slopes. Low vegetation is burning, while tree canopies have not yet caught fire. Crews remain positioned along the roads and firebreaks cut in previous days to stop the blaze from spreading further.

The fire broke out on September 4, when it caught low vegetation in the forest above the Bela Palanka villages of Kosmovac and Veta. From there it spread along the entire mountain range, into the territory of the Bela Palanka and Gadzin Han municipalities. According to a report from the Beta news agency, beech forests have caught fire on the Bela Palanka side, while this morning’s information from the Nis Fire and Rescue Brigade indicates that tree canopies still are not burning and the fire remains confined to ground level.

The closest inhabited places to the fire are Kosmovac, near Bela Palanka, and Mali Krcimir, near Gadzin Han. Firefighters are holding defense lines stretching from Bojanine Vode to Trem, and according to the latest information, no homes are currently at risk.

No Helicopters Today

On the sixth day, September 9, Interior Ministry (MUP) helicopters and a Russian Ilyushin aircraft took part in the firefighting effort. At the time, the fire was being fought in three separate zones: below Sokolov Kamen toward the Mosor peak, above the village of Kosmovac, and in the Pasarelo conifer forest complex. No aerial firefighting has been announced for September 10, shifting the burden of the fight to ground crews.

Besides professional firefighters, the crews on the ground include members of volunteer mountaineering clubs, workers from the state forestry company Srbijasume, members of the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center, motorcyclists, and residents of villages at the foot of Suva Planina. In previous days, more than 170 people, 46 vehicles, and three helicopters were deployed on the ground.

Radovanovic described how the crews are positioned in the field:

Firefighters are deployed at multiple locations on the mountain and are putting out the fire along mountain roads. This is how we’re preventing the fire line from spreading any further.

The same deployment of defense lines is being used again today, the seventh day of the fight against the fire.

The commander warned residents not to venture deep into the forest or onto steep slopes. According to him, embers are flying through the air and beech trees are falling, making movement through the area dangerous even outside the fire line itself.

Because the fire spread into the territory of the Niska Banja city municipality, the City of Nis earlier declared a state of emergency in part of that area. Srpske Novine reported on this back on the sixth day of the fire, when firefighters were battling three separate hotspots on the mountain and Srdjan Mitrovic, head of the Nis Emergency Situations Sector, assessed the situation as somewhat better than the day before, while warning that wind still posed a serious risk.

Widening the Road to Mosor

Part of the firefighting effort is taking place away from the fire line itself. Heavy machinery is widening a forest road from Bojanine Vode toward the Mosor peak, where the existing hiking trail is too narrow for crews to move quickly. The goal is a corridor 10 to 15 meters wide, depending on how demanding the terrain allows, meant to serve as a physical barrier against the fire spreading toward the land of the village of Gornja Studena and to make it easier for firefighters to reach hard to access parts of Suva Planina.

City services are also supporting the crews on the ground. The Mediana public utility company (JKP Mediana) is trucking in water to Bojanine Vode by tanker, and once conditions allow, water will be delivered further toward Mosor as well. The Student Center is preparing meals for the firefighters, members of other services, Srbijasume workers, and volunteers who have already spent seven days in the field.

So far there is no information about injuries or homes at risk. Firefighters continue to monitor the situation on the ground and are intervening from land wherever the terrain allows.