Fire near Dubrovnik being fought with 4 Canadair tanker planes

The wildfire in the area of Orašac - Gromača near Zaton (Dubrovački) is still being actively extinguished.

“This is the biggest fire in the Dubrovnik area this season. It burst into flames in the early afternoon and as soon as the fire was noticed, two Canadair planes from Divulje came. Later, two more joined them,” reported Morana Baričević for Croatian Radio Television.

According to the firefighters the situation is currently better. The fire began between Zaton and Orašac, after which it descended to the village of Ljubaš, fortunately, the houses were protected.

“It is a rural area, where there is dense vegetation and a dense forest that makes extinguishing difficult, so Canadair planes are absolutely necessary,” she added.

Dubrovnik firefighters are being assisted by three Volunteer Fire Departments and the State Intervention Unit.

The Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter that two Canadair planes were sent to extinguish the fire at the Zaton-Ljubač fire site in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, and then two additional Canadair planes, so four Canadair planes are now extinguishing the fire.

“This is the biggest fire of this summer, we can say, considering the type of vegetation, and we expected something like this to happen. The situation is now better than before, we are defending the road that goes from the main road and if we manage to defend it, we can say that the situation will be very good,” said Stjepko Krilanović, commander of the Dubrovnik fire brigade.

He added that four Canadair planes are still extinguishing the fire, as well as more than 60 firefighters from public fire brigades, the Dubrovnik Fire Brigade, Dubrovnik Littoral, the Dubrovnik Intervention Fire Brigade and all voluntary fire brigades from the area, while the Dubrovnik Volunteer Fire Department was also involved. Konavale firefighters are standing ready

Source: HRT.