Wildfire Reaches Omis, Thousand People Take Shelter

A wildfire that broke out Thursday evening along the Adriatic Highway near Omis, then spread overnight to the hills above the city itself, has shut down, at the height of the tourist season, the stretch of coastal road that travelers from Serbia use to reach central Dalmatia. About a thousand people, tourists among them, were moved into the city’s sports hall for safety. By the early morning hours the flames had come within less than fifty meters of the Omis city center.

The fire broke out at 8:21 p.m. in Lokva Rogoznica, above the Morska Vila cafe right beside the highway. By 8:46 p.m. police had already closed state road D8 on the stretch between Stanici and Medici, rerouting traffic through Omis and Dupci. Driven by the bura wind, the fire first spread east toward Mimice, then turned overnight and reached the suburban settlements of Nemira and Stanici.

The Split fire brigade posted footage from the fire line that same evening, captioned only with the name of the village.

How Many People Were Injured

Split-Dalmatia County prefect Blazenko Boban said ten people were injured, two of them seriously and taken to hospital in Split. Every plastic surgeon in Split was placed on standby to treat burns.

That number climbed as the night went on. As late as 11:31 p.m. chief fire commander Slavko Tucakovic was still saying there had been no reports of injuries or burned homes. By around 1:30 a.m. Omis mayor Zvonko Mocic was speaking of one man with burns who was being driven to hospital at that moment.

“The situation is not satisfactory, people are leaving their homes in the area hit by the fire, and some have suffered burns.”

Boban said this just as buses from the Promet transport company had already left Split, carrying some of the evacuees from the overcrowded Ribnjak hall to a second reception center, the Gripe hall in Split.

A Thousand People in the Ribnjak Sports Hall

The Ribnjak municipal sports hall in Omis was designated as the reception center, and by about one hour after midnight it held approximately a thousand people. The county sent beds, food and drinks were handed out, and supplies were secured for the children.

“There are now about a thousand people in the reception center. They have drinks and beds, supplies have been secured for the children, and food has been distributed. The Red Cross has made available everything it can. We need to survive, we need to get through this night.”

The words are Mayor Mocic’s, who told net.hr that same night that he had never experienced an operation like it. Hundreds of people were pulled out by sea on Harbor Master’s Office boats, while the county prefect arranged buses and two vessels.

Part of the coast lost power, Mimice among them. Several dozen vehicles burned on the Adriatic Highway, and the wrecks needed to be cleared by six in the morning for the road to reopen at all. Gas canister explosions could be heard from yards caught by the fire, and the steel rockfall barriers above the city, structures built to stop stones from sliding onto houses, also burned.

RTL reporter Nikolina Radic reported from Omis that the Fortica fortress above the old town core had burned, while the lower Mirabela fortress was untouched.

Firefighters From Six Counties

More than 150 firefighters were on the ground overnight. Units from Kastela to Makarska arrived first, followed by reinforcements from Zadar, Sibenik-Knin and Dubrovnik-Neretva counties.

“All firefighting units from Kastela to Makarska were immediately deployed to the fire. We have added further units from Zadar, Sibenik-Knin and Dubrovnik-Neretva counties, and units from Krapina-Zagorje, Bjelovar-Bilogora and Koprivnica-Krizevci counties are also on their way.”

That same night Tucakovic summed it up briefly: “This will be a hard night and a lot of fighting.” Ante Sanader, head of the Croatian Firefighting Association, announced that firefighters from continental Croatia were on their way, with Canadair water bombers ordered for the morning and helicopters for dawn. All four Canadairs were expected to join by morning, with the possibility of the army being called in as well.

Omis deputy mayor Ivan Pivcevic told Slobodna Dalmacija that many houses had burned down.

“The fire is spreading, the wind is working against us. Many houses have burned down, and the blaze is at the doorstep of many more buildings.”

Economy Minister Ante Susnjar, who toured the fire site, said something like this was “unprecedented and unrecorded” in Croatia.

What Else Was Happening in Croatia

That same night was not calm elsewhere on the coast either, though the timelines differ. Fires on Brac and near Skrljevo broke out the previous night and were contained by the afternoon, hours before the Omis fire even started. On Sipan, 27 firefighters were working in the afternoon, while smaller fires near Primosten and Vodice, which broke out the same evening, were contained to about two hectares of uninhabited land.

All of this falls within a season that was already difficult even before this night. As we reported earlier, 8,832 fires have been recorded in Croatia since January 1, killing 23 people. What sets Omis apart is that, for the first time, the fire did not stay on the hillsides but reached the rooftops of a town in the middle of the tourist season.

For travelers from Serbia, the practical consequence is that the highway remains closed on the Stanici to Medici stretch until the burned vehicles are removed and the road surface is checked for safety. Canadairs were expected on the morning of August 14, though whether they can fly at all depends on how strong the bura wind is.