Slovenian Firefighters Help Battle Major Wildfire on Brac

A forest fire that broke out overnight into Thursday above Pucisce on the island of Brac was fought by local crews from Brac and Split, and also by four firefighters from Slovenia stationed in Supetar under an exchange program between Croatian and Slovenian units now in its fourth year. It is a detail rarely noticed in the region, and it says something about how the coast is defended each summer, the same coast where large numbers of guests from Serbia are staying throughout August: the foreign help had not rushed in once the fire was already burning, it had been on the island for months, under an arrangement made before the season even started.

The fire spread across at least 250 hectares of mostly dense pine forest, and about fifty people were moved to safety from the area.

Call Comes In at 2:30 AM, Then Apartments Are Evacuated

Marko Slapar, a professional firefighter with the Domzale Center for Protection and Rescue, told Slovenian outlet Siol that the area had already burned on Wednesday, but that fire was smaller and quickly brought under control. The serious blaze started a few hours later.

The report of a major fire came in, according to Slapar, at around 2:30 AM. Undergrowth in the pine forest had caught fire, units headed out immediately and began evacuating apartments threatened by the flames. In those first hours, around 120 firefighters and 34 vehicles were on the ground.

Fire chief Nikola Martinic Dragan said at least fifty people, mostly tourists, were moved to safety from about twenty buildings because of the fire. Croatian news agency Hina, citing firefighters from Supetar, reported that people evacuated earlier in the day were already returning to their buildings.

The terrain was what made the job difficult.

“Fighting the fire was very demanding, because it broke out on extremely steep terrain covered in rocks, so you had to watch carefully where you stepped.”

Slapar added that locals told him they could not remember it ever being this hard.

Six Aircraft From 7 AM

Air support joined in around 7 AM. Four Canadair water bombers and two air tractors arrived at the fire and helped contain it. According to Siol, the fire was brought under control at around 8:15 PM, after roughly eighteen hours of firefighting, with between 250 and 300 hectares burned.

Croatian sources, carried by the portal 24ur, give a somewhat different account: the fire was brought under control after nearly thirteen hours of fighting the flames and a strong bora wind, with the help of six aircraft, and more than 250 hectares burned. On the ground, according to Net.hr, 65 firefighters with twenty vehicles from Brac and the Split Intervention Firefighting Unit took part, while Split-Dalmatia County sent another 47 firefighters and ten vehicles.

Chief fire commander Slavko Tucakovic said the fire spread quickly because of strong wind, but that it was kept from reaching homes, and that air support had been taking part in the firefighting since morning alongside reinforcements sent from the mainland.

What Is the Alpe-Adria Knowledge Transfer Project?

The Slovenian firefighters were not on Brac by chance. Portal 24ur reports that the four from Domzale are there as part of the Alpe-Adria Knowledge Transfer project, whose goal is a steady, two way and systematic exchange of knowledge between Croatian and Slovenian firefighters across all disciplines, according to the Domzale Center for Protection and Rescue.

In practice, that means fixed dates, not improvisation.

“Our cooperation started four years ago and we have been rotating ever since. We go to Brac on June 1 and stay there as seasonal firefighters until October 1. Basically we are like one family.”

Of the four who were on the island, two are professional firefighters, including Slapar, and two are volunteers. Alongside his professional service in Domzale, Slapar is also a volunteer firefighter himself.

Slapar described the locals’ attitude toward the help in very concrete terms.

“They were very happy to see that we Slovenians had come to help too. They brought us food, cold drinks and coffee, so we were well taken care of.”

Supetar’s Mayor Singles Out the Slovenians

Supetar Mayor Ivana Markovic posted a message of support during the morning of August 13 for everyone who had been on the ground, and in it she mentioned the Slovenian colleagues separately, alongside the deployed units and the reinforcements that arrived from the mainland.

“To all our firefighters and firefighting women from Brac, to the deployed units, to our Slovenians and to everyone who came from the mainland this morning, and to those who have been on the ground fighting this major fire since the night, stay safe! I am especially proud of our Supetar firefighters and of everything we have invested over the years in people and equipment so that we could react quickly at moments like this and have everything we need on the ground to stay safe. I know how they work, I know what they have. And I know what kind of commander they have. Reinforcements from the mainland reached us this morning, and 4 Canadairs are taking part in the firefighting. Stay safe.”

The job was not over once the fire was contained. Slapar announced that a fire watch of seventy to eighty people would remain at the site overnight, since a strong bora had been forecast for the area, a wind that easily brings fire back to life in rocky terrain.

The Slovenian rotation in Supetar remains until October 1, in other words through the rest of the fire season on the central Adriatic.