ZAGREB, 11 Oct 2021 - The Croatian Firefighting Association (HVZ) on Monday presented results of this year's fire season, noting that the season was extremely warm but that the number of wildfires was 20% down from 2020.
There were 3,004 wildfires this year against 3,778 in 2020.
The area consumed by wildfires this year was 59% smaller compared to last year, but during the peak season, from June to September, the increase in the size of the area consumed by wildfires compared to 2020 was as much as 400%.
Two civilians were killed, 11 firefighters, five civilians injured
In the entire fire season, 11 firefighters and five civilians were injured while two civilians were killed in a wildfire that erupted due to the burning of weed.
Air firefighting forces were deployed to fight 130 wildfires, mostly in Šibenik-Knin County (49), Split-Dalmatia County (43), and Zadar County (29).
Firefighting planes had a total of 5,339 flights in the total duration of 846 hours and they unloaded close to 25,000 tonnes of water. The pilotless air system Orbiter 3 went on reconnaissance missions 14 times.
Firefighting forces were also deployed in neighboring and Mediterranean countries, twice in Bosnia and Herzegovina and once in Greece and Turkey. They had a total of 376 flights in the duration of 102 hours, unloading more than 2,000 tonnes of water.
This year firefighters used 1,181 vehicles more than last season and the average age of the vehicles was 20.6 years or three years less.
