Commander of the Jelsa Fire Department: We are cleaning up the fire site, the situation is under control

The situation at the fire site on the southern part of the island of Hvar, near the town of Ivan Dolac, is much more favorable. The firefighters who remained on the ground last night were assisted by a Canadair tanker planes this morning, and additional firefighting forces from the mainland arrived on the island.

“The situation is under control, but the problem is the strong mistral wind,” journalist Mirta Šurjak told Croatian Television news, reporting from the area between the settlements of Bojanić Bad and Ivan Dolac.

“About 200 hectares of low and high vegetation, brush, and pine forests have burned. That fire, together with the one about 15 days ago near the Hvar settlement of Sveta Nedjelja, caused more damage than all the fires in the past 10 years,” Šurjak said.

Roman Radonjić, commander of the Jelsa Fire Department, said that work is underway to clean up the fire site, that the situation is under control, and that there is no major smoke. He hopes that despite the strengthening of the wind, he will still have the entire fire under control. This morning at 6.30 a.m., a Canadair plane joined in and extinguished the outer parts of the fire that were inaccessible to firefighters. It withdrew when the job was done.

“The situation on Saturday was not ideal at one point,” Radonjić pointed out.

“The fire was spreading very quickly. Houses were threatened, but with superhuman efforts by us and the air force, we managed to stop everything,” the commander of the Jelsa Volunteer Fire Department pointed out.

“At one point, both firefighters and vehicles were threatened. One firefighter has a minor eye injury, but he does not have any major problems,” added Radonjić.

Fire Chief Kovačević: The night passed quite peacefully

“The night passed quite peacefully, there was some "ignition" on the southern edges, that has been resolved and now we have an almost clear situation. There were 60 firefighters on the scene all night, from three companies, the Jelsa, Hvar and Stari Grad fire departments,” Ivan Kovačević, the county fire chief, told Croatian Radio.

He added that the bora wind calmed down around 2 am and that there is currently not much wind.

The fire yesterday engulfed several abandoned buildings, older cars, part of agricultural buildings and the gardens of two villas. Vegetation and part of the vineyard also burned.

All operational forces from the island participated in the extinguishing, and due to the inaccessible and demanding terrain, Canadair planes also helped.

"The situation looked very serious on Saturday"

The "Jelsa Fire Department" posted several photos of the fire on Facebook and yesterday, upon arrival at the fire site, the situation looked very serious and demanding, and the extinguishing was based on defending houses. Unfortunately, there are also several burned gardens and older cars, they added. In the late afternoon, two Canadair planes also participated in extinguishing the fire, and the fire was brought under control. Firefighters note that the fire front is large and inaccessible.

They thanked everyone who participated in extinguishing the fire. They announced that help from the mainland is expected today.

Source: HRT