While the situation is far from what it was during summer 2017 on the Dalmatian coast, Croatia has so far seen 5,300 fires before the end of July, which is more than were reported during the whole of 2018.
The fire which broke out in Dubravica close to Skradin in Šibenik-Knin County has now finally been extinguished, after four long days of fighting the steadily progressing flames.
As SibenikIN/VB writes on the 11th of August, 2019, the potentially devastating fire which broke out and very quickly took hold in the Dubravica area near Skradin in a thick pine forest on Thursday afternoon, and then broke out once again on Friday was finally completely extinguished this morning at 09:32, according to the Operations and Communications Centre of the Šibenik police.
The inaccessible, wild terrain and the dense pine forests made it extremely easy for the fire to spread among the dry wood and leaves under the heat of the sun, but also made it very difficult for firefighters to do their work properly on foot, so yesterday, an airtractor made sure to properly soak the burned out area in the hills near Skradin so as to prevent any further spreading of the flames.
The Croatian Air Force were called in to assist the situation on Thursday and Friday as well, with about thirty hours of flight time and about 370 water bombs, or about 2000 tons of water, dropped on the burned area.
On the first day, the fire was extinguished by four firefighting aircraft, while on Friday, six Croatian Air Force firefighting aircraft were involved in controlling and extinguishing the flames.
According to initial estimates, more than 7.5 hectares of land were burned, and members of local PUPs and DVDs and members of the Šibenik SEC participated in the firefight.
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