Third Omis Fire Victim Dies, Damage Hits 110 Million Euros

A third person died today, September 10, at Split University Hospital from injuries sustained in the fire that swept through part of the Omis coast in mid-August. The news comes a day after the mayor of Omis gave the first official estimate of the material damage, around 110 million euros, making the August fire the largest wildfire disaster in the region this year. The story is not a distant one for Serbian readers: thousands of tourists from Serbia travel that same stretch of the Adriatic Highway every summer, and the first person to die in the fire was a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a seasonal worker employed on that same stretch of coast.

Third Victim at Split Hospital

The patient who died was born in 1968, meaning she was 58 years old. Split University Hospital released the following statement:

Despite all the intensive treatment measures taken and the efforts of the medical team, another person (born in 1968) has died at the Split hospital from injuries sustained in the fire in the Omis area. Two more patients remain in intensive care and are still in life-threatening condition. We offer our sincere condolences to the family of the deceased patient.

According to Croatian media, the woman had been undergoing treatment since August, and the hospital confirms that two critically injured patients remain in intensive care. Besides Split, four more injured people are being treated in Zagreb, three of them at Sestre Milosrdnice University Hospital, while one minor is being treated at the Klaiceva Street Children’s Hospital.

The first person to lose her life in the fire was Dragana Antesevic, a 34-year-old seasonal worker from Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose body was found in Mala Luka in the Stanici area, next to the Adriatic Highway. The second victim was Drago Lelas, 79, a retired firefighter who died in late August at Split University Hospital after defending his family home in Dubrave.

Timeline: From Lokva Rogoznica to Omis

The fire broke out on August 13 in a wooded strip next to the road near Lokva Rogoznica and, driven by strong wind, spread quickly toward Omis. The burned strip stretches about 23 kilometers, and roughly 1,000 hectares were scorched. More than 2,000 residents and tourists were evacuated from the area, while more than 40 people sought medical help, most of them for breathing problems caused by smoke, and several suffered severe burns.

Why Do the Damage Estimates Differ?

Omis mayor Zvonko Mocic said the damage from the August fire is estimated at more than 110 million euros, adding that the final figure will only be known once an expert commission goes into the field and verifies the reported losses. According to him, the reporting of damage was completed on Wednesday, and the 110 million euro figure includes buildings, vehicles and boats, as well as crops and forest land.

People have reported their costs, we are recording and registering all of it, and then experts will go out into the field and review it case by case and give their assessment of the material damage.

According to the preliminary estimate presented by Mocic, around 310 structures were damaged in the fire, including 13 commercial buildings owned by legal entities, 110 cars and 50 boats. That estimate does not give a separate figure for burned houses, but independent reports from the ground say around 50 houses were completely destroyed, along with around 117 destroyed vehicles. Nova.rs, citing an estimate made after the natural disaster was declared, gives somewhat different figures: 58 destroyed or damaged houses and other residential buildings, 108 vehicles and 25 boats. The gap between the sources shows that the final damage count has not yet been finalized, something the mayor himself stressed when he announced that the expert commission would review the data case by case.

Inspections by the expert commission, according to announcements from Omis, are expected to take about 50 days from when the fire broke out, meaning until mid-September, after which the final results should be published.

Questions Over Evacuation and the Cause of the Fire

Alongside the damage assessment, official investigations were launched in Omis during September, and the local association Volim Omis has requested an analysis of how the evacuation was carried out and how the 112 emergency system functioned, as well as an explanation of why the SRUUK early warning system was not activated as the fire spread toward inhabited parts of the town. Mayor Mocic, for his part, said that “life is slowly returning to Omis,” that the tourist season did not underperform, and that the state has provided assistance to those affected.

According to unofficial information, forensic experts are expected to complete their analysis of the fire’s cause by early next week and submit their findings to the County State Attorney’s Office and the police. Only then will it be officially established what caused the largest fire in Croatia this year, one whose consequences, with three deaths and damage estimated at 110 million euros, are still being felt in Omis and the surrounding area a month later.