Primosten and Vodice Fires Contained by 22:17
Sibenik-Knin County's firefighting association logged twelve incidents in twelve hours, with two evening open-field fires fought by 41 firefighters and fifteen vehicles.
Fires broke out near Primosten and Vodice on Thursday evening, in the hinterland of the route that carries most of Serbia’s summer visitors toward central Dalmatia in August. Both fires were contained by 22:17, when Volimir Milosevic, commander of the Sibenik Public Fire Brigade (JVP Sibenik), confirmed to Hina that no buildings or lives had been threatened. The fires were small, burning forest and low vegetation in an uninhabited area.
A rundown from the Sibenik-Knin County Firefighting Association puts the numbers in context: over twelve hours spanning Wednesday and Thursday, the county logged twelve firefighting incidents, from a morning open-field fire in Plavno to the two evening blazes that drew the largest response.
What burned during the day?
The county association’s rundown runs by the clock, with the number of people and vehicles on each call:
- an open-field fire in Plavno, reported at 09:39, extinguished by the Knin Public Fire Brigade (JVP Knin) with three firefighters and one vehicle, put out at 11:27
- a structure fire in Sibenik, reported at 11:10, handled by JVP Sibenik with eight firefighters and three vehicles, put out at 11:50
- a structure fire in Lozovac, reported at 14:23, handled by JVP Sibenik with seven firefighters and three vehicles, put out at 15:45
- a trash fire in the Pod area, reported at 14:41, fought by fifteen firefighters with four vehicles, put out at 17:08
- an open-field fire in Vodice, reported at 14:48, handled by the Vodice Public Fire Brigade (JVP Vodice) and the Vodice Voluntary Fire Brigade (DVD Vodice) with six firefighters and two vehicles, put out at 15:11
- a structure fire in Brodarica, reported at 15:25, handled by DVD Brodarica with three firefighters and one vehicle, put out at 16:01
Alongside those calls came technical rescue interventions in Sibenik, Pakovo Selo and Knin, plus an open-field callout in Skradin that DVD Skradin wrapped up at 19:23.
Then evening arrived. At 19:30 an open-field fire was reported in the Gacelezi area, drawing JVP Vodice, DVD Vodice, DVD Zaton, DVD Pirovac, DVD Sibenik, DVD Tisno and the county association, 23 firefighters in all with nine vehicles. Twenty five minutes later, at 19:55, a call came in for Podgreben in the hinterland of Primosten, where DVD Primosten, DVD Rogoznica, DVD Grebastica, JVP Sibenik and DVD Brodarica responded, eighteen firefighters with six vehicles.
In the hinterland of Vodice, the fire burned through roughly two hectares of forest and low vegetation, while the burned area at Podgreben was somewhat smaller. A Podgreben resident described how it started, in an account given to 24sata and carried by net.hr:
We saw the fire from the balcony, and at first we thought someone was burning branches.
Mop-up at Podgreben was nearing completion right after containment, with the fire expected to be fully extinguished soon.
Why Sibenik firefighters headed to Omis
As soon as the fires on their own turf were under control, Sibenik firefighters prepared to move into Split-Dalmatia County, where a request had come in for additional forces at a fire in Lokva Rogoznica near Omis. There, flames broke out around 20:21 right along the highway, prompting the Split-Dalmatia Police Department to close a stretch of state road D8 between Stanici, coming from Split, and Medici, coming from Makarska, letting through only emergency vehicles and residents.
Chief Firefighting Commander Slavko Tucakovic ordered an emergency deployment from inland Croatia to Lokva Rogoznica, bringing in forces from Koprivnica-Krizevci, Krapina-Zagorje and Bjelovar-Bilogora counties along with Zagreb, after forces from Zadar, Sibenik-Knin and Dubrovnik-Neretva counties had already been sent to the same fire earlier. Sibenik’s total of 41 firefighters across the two evening fires turned out to be only part of that night’s workload.
Sibenik-Knin County still closed out the night more quietly than its neighbor. The report for the following twelve hours logged three incidents: a technical intervention in Sibenik from 22:21 to 23:09, an open-field fire in Puljan from 23:15 to 23:49 that DVD Promina put out with four firefighters and two vehicles, and a technical rescue intervention in Knin from 04:44 to 05:02.
We reported earlier on this year’s wildfire season in Croatia and its overall toll. Thursday confirmed the same pattern: most of the workload comes from short callouts handled by two or three firefighters, until one evening report puts half the county on the move.
