Konjic Fire: Natural Disaster Declared, Air Tankers Sought
Konjic has declared a state of natural disaster and requested international air support. The fire above Kanjina is spreading in several directions, and abandoned buildings have burned in Dzepi.
The Civil Protection Operations Center of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton announced on August 12, 2026, that a state of natural disaster had been declared over the wildfires burning around Konjic. The same day, the City of Konjic asked the Federal Civil Protection Administration to bring in international help fighting the fire from the air. The Konjic fire has now reached a point where local and cantonal forces can no longer decide the outcome on their own, and the request for help has gone beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Serbia’s neighboring countries and further afield.
The fire above the village of Kanjina is spreading in several directions, toward the settlements of Zivasnica and Brdjani. In the Dzepi settlement near Konjic, the fire swept through and destroyed several abandoned buildings overnight, among them one abandoned house and two barns. Firefighters saved three buildings in the same settlement.
Why can’t ground crews reach the fire on their own?
Because it’s a pine forest burning, and because the fire is moving through the treetops rather than through low vegetation. Nedim Makan, commander of the Fire Brigade within the Konjic City Civil Protection and Firefighting Service, explained what that means for crews on the ground.
We need air support here to bring the fire under control, so that we can somehow move in with ground crews.
Makan was just as blunt about what it would mean to go in without air support first.
This is a high intensity fire, and going in there with ground crews is nothing short of suicide.
The same official warned a day earlier that the fire could spread toward Sarajevo Canton, specifically toward Ilidza, one of the reasons the request for air support was renewed.
Who’s fighting the fire on the ground
According to the cantonal civil protection statement, the following are involved in the firefighting effort in the Konjic area:
- Konjic Professional Firefighting Unit
- the Prenj Forestry firefighting unit
- the Neretvica Volunteer Fire Society
- firefighters from Hadzici and Tarcin
- several dozen local residents and hunters
From the air, helicopters of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina are working the fire, along with air tractor planes belonging to the Government of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and a helicopter from the Civil Protection of Zenica-Doboj Canton. Authorities are now asking for Canadair planes and additional helicopters, saying the equipment currently on hand isn’t enough to bring the fire under control. That marks a real shift from previous days: until now the requests were for reinforcements from within the Federation, now they’re for equipment none of the deployed fleets actually have.
Konjic isn’t the only hot spot
The same operations center also reports fires in the Neum area, in Medjugorje, Lastva and Gornje Hrasno, where two air tractor crews are working. Herzegovina thus has several active fire lines burning on the same day, with the available aircraft split between them.
High temperatures, steep and inaccessible terrain and the sheer intensity of the fire are all making it harder to fight. That combination of three factors is why Konjic asked not just for more vehicles and personnel, but for aircraft that can drop, in a single pass, as much water as ground crews couldn’t haul up that terrain in hours.
What happens next
The City of Konjic’s request goes through the Federal Civil Protection Administration, which is responsible for formalizing requests for help from abroad and passing them on. The declared state of natural disaster is the legal framework that opens up that process and allows resources to be brought in outside the regular procedure.
For now, Zivasnica and Brdjani remain the directions the fire is moving toward, and confirmed material damage in Dzepi is limited to abandoned buildings. The next update will come from the Civil Protection Operations Center of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, which reports on the fires daily, and the response to the request for Canadair planes will determine whether August 12 goes down as the day the defense line held around the houses, or the day air support arrived from other countries.
