ZAGREB, September 16, 2018 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović visited on Saturday the firefighting command centre at Divulje in Split, congratulating firefighters and staff of other relevant departments on this year's fire season being much more successful than last year's.
She said that an analysis of the developments in 2017 had resulted in coordination between relevant agencies, public institutions, the business and the civil sector and the media in developing the fire prevention system.
Chief firefighting commander Slavko Tucaković said that the number of wildfires and the size of the area consumed by wildfires were much smaller this year than in 2017. In 2017, the size of the area consumed by wildfires at this time of the year was around 75,000 hectares, and this year it is 1,300 hectares and only in the coastal area, he said.
That is only 2% of the size of the area consumed by wildfires in 2017, while the number of wildfires is 67% down from 2017, said Tucaković.
The better results are owing to measures taken by the central government and local government units, as well as better weather conditions, better monitoring on the ground, and the establishment of the firefighting command centre at Divulje, said Tucaković.
