Suva Planina Fire Put Out: 1,014 People, 489 Vehicles

The fire that broke out on Suva Planina on September 4 has been fully extinguished, caretaker Interior Minister Ivica Dacic announced today, October 14. The firefighting effort was led by members of the Emergency Management Sector of the Interior Ministry (MUP). According to the statement, there were no fatalities and no buildings burned.

In the MUP statement, Dacic said:

I would like to note that there were no fatalities in this intervention and that not a single building burned, which is always our priority.

How did the operation unfold?

The fire was first contained and then fully put out. The minister said difficult terrain and harsh conditions made the work harder, and that the fire burned for almost a month and a half. The statement gives no date for when the fire was contained, and no figure for the area burned or the cause of the fire.

Who fought the Suva Planina fire?

According to Dacic, a total of 1,014 people were on the ground, most of them members of the Emergency Management Sector, along with 489 vehicles. Firefighter-rescuers came from Nis, Pirot, Gadzin Han, Doljevac and Zajecar. Help came from:

• the volunteer fire brigades “Konstantin” and “Stevan Sindjelic”
• Civil Protection
• employees of the public enterprise “Srbijasume”
• members of the Serbian-Russian Humanitarian Center
• members of local mountaineering societies and motorcycle clubs
• employees of local governments and public enterprises, as well as citizens

What did the air units do?

The minister singled out air support. “We must not forget the action from the air either,” Dacic said, noting that the MUP Helicopter Unit, with five aircraft, made a total of 55 sorties. He added a figure for the Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft:

Help from the air also came from the crew of the Ilyushin, with a total of 19 sorties.

By those numbers, the helicopters and the plane together flew 74 sorties during the operation.

The fire season in numbers

In the same statement, the MUP gave a total for the whole season: on open ground alone, members of the Emergency Management Sector put out 13,002 fires. More than a month passed between the outbreak on Suva Planina and the announcement that it was out. The MUP presents the figures on personnel and vehicles as totals for the entire operation, not broken down by phase.