Bileca and Gacko Fires Rage On, Trnovo Blaze Hits Minefield

Wildfires in Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina are entering their fifth day, and word arrived yesterday, for the first time, that a fire near Trnovo had crossed into a minefield, ground where firefighters cannot approach the flames directly. For Belgrade, this is not just a neighboring country’s news: Republika Srpska is an entity tied closely to Serbia both politically and through family ties, and the smoke rising over eastern Herzegovina these days is visible even from the Serbian side of the border.

Bileca and Gacko have been burning for five days, and the situation described on the morning of September 8 shows that firefighters managed to stabilize the front after an extremely difficult night. The fire line, several kilometers long, is still active around several villages:

• Hodzici
• Korita
• Brestice
• Doluse

At one point the fire spread rapidly, reaching the main road that connects Bileca and Gacko, and traffic on that stretch was fully halted on several occasions. The damage to infrastructure is tangible: dozens of power poles have burned down, cutting electricity to part of the villages listed above.

Radomir Radmilovic, commander of the Bileca Territorial Firefighting Unit, said his crews are fighting the fire at several locations around the village of Korita, and that at this point the flames do not threaten homes or residents’ property. The picture is more favorable in neighboring Gacko: Zarko Rudovic, commander of the local firefighting unit, told the Srna news agency that two fires are burning in the area, both already brought under control, and that the situation in the municipality is now considered stable.

Trnovo: fire reaches a minefield

The most serious complication came from the municipality of Trnovo, where a large fire spread into a minefield in the Presjenica area. Nijaz Imamovic, president of the Ilidza Firefighting Society, said this makes the firefighting effort considerably harder, since crews cannot approach the fire directly while it burns on ground suspected to be mined. According to him, homes in the area are also under threat from the fire.

Five fire trucks have been deployed on the ground, with crews from:

• The Ilidza Firefighting Society
• The Trnovo Firefighting Society
• The Alipasin Most Firefighting Society
• The Professional Firefighting Brigade, alongside a team from Sarajevo-sume

Air support has been sent to two separate hot spots, and it is worth being precise about what is happening where. Near Tomislavgrad, the fire is still active, but the situation on the ground has improved significantly thanks to Croatian water-bombing aircraft, though it is not known when they arrived. Separately, near Trebinje, a fire line is still open toward Trebisevo and Zlopolje, where all available resources have been deployed, aided by water bombers that arrived that same morning, their country of origin not specified.

North Macedonia battles a string of fires

The wildfires that morning did not spare North Macedonia either. Four fires were being fought the same day: one was still active in the Djorce Petrov municipality, near the village of Gracani, while fires in the Saraj municipality, the Cucer Sandevo municipality, the Ramno area of Skopska Crna Gora, and the Struga municipality had all been brought under control.

The overall picture is even wider. By 1 p.m. on September 8, North Macedonia had recorded 16 open-air fires, of which nine were active, in the following municipalities:

• Struga
• Kicevo
• Makedonski Brod
• Tetovo
• Zelino
• Gostivar
• Dolneni

The number of active hot spots in a single day shows the scale of this summer’s wave of fires across the southern Balkans, a wave that is not confined to one country or one firefighting service.

Srpske novine recently reported on fires near Kupres and Rama, where Croatia sent two water-bombing aircraft to help Bosnia and Herzegovina. Trnovo is now the second hot spot this season where air support has proven decisive, with one difference: here, for the first time this season, firefighters are also blocked by a minefield, a leftover from the war that still lies underground in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. How long the fire line near Bileca and Gacko will stay active, and when Trnovo can be safely fought, depends on the wind and on deminers’ assessments, questions whose answers will only come in the days ahead.