ZAGREB, 7 April 2022 - Croatian fire chief Slavko Tucaković said on Thursday that the national firefighting system should brace for a tough season.

Addressing a conference of firefighters in Opatija, Tucaković said that the weather forecasts for the spring and the summer show that a very tough season could be expected.

He recalled that in the past period, apart from battling blazes and wildfires, firefighters had been engaged in operations in the aftermath of the two devastating quakes in Zagreb and Sisak County in 2020.

In Zagreb, they participated in 6,000 operations in the wake of the tremor, and in 14,500 interventions following the 29 December 2020 earthquake that hit Sisak-Moslavina County.

Firefighters were thus engaged in rescue operations when 30 people were pulled from rubble or evacuated from damaged buildings in the area of Petrinja, according to Tucaković.

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A young volunteering firefighter reacted to the statement from the president of the Fire Department, who said his firemen get multiple quality meals a day