Trebinje Wildfires Contained, Fire Line Still Active
After the toughest day yet, Trebinje firefighters had contained every blaze by 9:38 am Monday, but the fire line still runs above Orasje and Ljubovo, with a second front moving toward Tretinje.
Every wildfire that had been burning simultaneously across eleven locations near Trebinje on Sunday, August 2, was contained by 9:38 am Monday, and a noon report at 12:02 pm described the situation at the fire sites as stable. It is the same heat wave that pushed North Macedonia to declare a state of crisis across its entire territory on August 1, with one difference: southeastern Republika Srpska met the fire without any help from the air, with firefighters putting out burning karst using backpack sprayers, and the only outside support coming from neighboring Ljubinje.
Contained still doesn’t mean out. The fire line still runs above the villages of Orasje and Ljubovo, while a second front is moving toward the village of Tretinje, so crews have stayed in the field because of the risk of flare ups.
How Sunday Unfolded
Sunday was the hardest day since the fire started. It burned around the villages of Biograd, Ljubovo, Orasje, Begovica Kula, Zupci, Kotezi and Ravno, and late in the evening the fire broke out at three to four locations right in the center of Trebinje itself. All of it was brought under control by morning.
Water was dropped by members of the Trebinje Territorial Fire and Rescue Unit, led by unit commander Dejan Kaskovic, alongside every volunteer fire brigade in the area and local residents. When the fire crossed into Kotezi, colleagues from Ljubinje arrived to help.
Kaskovic described how the front moved overnight:
“The fire in Biograd was contained late last night, and the flames spread further above the villages of Ljubovo and Orasje. The second front, moving toward the asphalt base and the village of Luka, has also passed through, and we continue to monitor it.”
The villages of Biograd and Luka were saved that night. That was the goal of the entire operation: fire on open karst is hard to stop across open ground, so crews defend whatever has a roof over it.
Why the Fire Isn’t Over Even After Containment
The answer lies in the terrain. Eastern Herzegovina is rock, karst pavement and low brush, ground that fire trucks cannot reach and that has to be covered on foot, with a sprayer strapped to your back.
“The fires are being actively monitored and dealt with wherever possible. The terrain is inaccessible and rocky, and in some places it’s impossible to get close to the fire,” Kaskovic said.
That’s also why he believes air support would make a major difference in conditions like these. How the situation develops from here, he said, will largely depend on the weather.
A Two Kilometer Front, Since Friday
The wave began on Friday, July 31, around 11 am, when a major fire broke out above the New Settlement in Volujak, near Trebinje. The front was about two kilometers long at the time, burning through low brush, with 15 firefighters on the ground.
“We went out to the field immediately after the report came in. Fifteen firefighters are currently engaged, putting out the fire with backpack sprayers. Firefighting is made harder by the inaccessible terrain, where low vegetation is burning. The fire front stretches about two kilometers,” Kaskovic said that day.
The cause of that fire was never established. Between Friday and Monday, the number of fire sites grew from one to eleven, and the same unit stayed in the field the entire time.
The Region Under the Same Heat Wave
Trebinje isn’t an isolated case in the region. North Macedonia’s Crisis Management Center reported on Monday at 10:53 am that 30 wildfires had been recorded across the country in the previous 24 hours, though none remained active: one fire was under control, and 29 had been fully extinguished. The nationwide state of crisis in that country, which we reported on earlier, has been in effect since August 1.
The comparison shows a gap in capacity. Skopje has a national mechanism that tracks fires by the day and deploys forces accordingly, while in eastern Herzegovina, eleven fire sites are being handled by a single municipal unit, volunteers and local residents. The next test will be the first day with stronger wind, since everything that has been contained sits on ground that cannot be doused with water.
Residents are urged to stay cautious and to follow official updates from the relevant services.
