August 9, 2022 - Croatia's summer of wildfires continues, with a Zrce fire close to the famous party beach near Novalja and Zadar starting in the night, reports Index.hr.

On Zrce, the most famous party beach in Croatia, a big fire broke out last night, it is being tackled by the firefighters of DVD Novalja, and a Canadair has arrived to help them fight the fire from the air.

Conditions are being made difficult by a strong gale.

Index.hr is providing live updates (Google Translate is your friend if you want to follow the story). 

10:00 Update - the fire has now been extinguished with no casualties.

8 minutes ago
Croatian Roads Authority: Traffic in Novalja has been interrupted
Traffic on the state road DC106 Pag-Novalja in Novalja has been interrupted due to the fire.

8 minutes ago
The clubs evacuated the guests
A journalist from the Požeški.hr portal happened to be at Zrce and reported that the storm that did not stop all night made the extinguishing difficult. After the fire was noticed, the clubs on the Zrce beach immediately directed their guests to the exits and to the buses and taxis in order to get away from the beach as soon as possible.

9 minutes ago
A Canadair is also helping tackle the blaze.
The fire is not under control, and the Canadair has arrived to help.

9 minutes ago
Firefighters have released the video
Tonight, around 3 o'clock, a fire broke out next to Zrce beach on the island of Pag. On the field are members of DVD Novalja who posted a video on their Facebook profile.

Index.hr is providing live updates (Google Translate is your friend if you want to follow the story). 

****

What is it like to live in Croatia? An expat for 20 years, you can follow my series, 20 Ways Croatia Changed Me in 20 Years, starting at the beginning - Business and Dalmatia.

Follow Paul Bradbury on LinkedIn.

Croatia, a Survival Kit for Foreigners will be out by Christmas. If you would like to reserve a copy, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Subject 20 Years Book

Yesterday, we reported on the fire that broke out on the famous Zrće beach in Novalja on the island of Pag. The fire started in a nearby pine forest, it appears that the nobody was hurt, that facilities are safe, and that everyone was successfully evacuated via a praiseworthy joint effort from police and firemen. 

Wildfires do happen, especially on the Croatian coast. The dry trees in the characteristic dense pine forests can easily get too hot and spark a fire, but as we've seen before with the devastating fires in previous years down in Dalmatia, they can also have a human cause. The cause of the Zrće fire, sadly appears to have a darker side to it.

As Morski writes on the 16th of July, 2019, Željko Prša, the deputy chief of police, told RTL that the police, with the help of expert witnesses from the Ivan Vučetić Centre for Criminal Investigation, found the location from which the big fire which began in the early hours of the morning on the 16th of July, began. It unfortunately seems that the fire on Zrće beach was caused by a human factor, more precisely by an open flame.

It seems that it was most likely that it was a cigarette butt that was thrown twenty or thirty metres from the sea near Caska beach. Prša said that no arrests have yet been made, but that they have a lot of eyewitnesses and the police are still talking with them.

It was found that the Zrće fire was caused by a human factor, but it still needs to be determined whether it was intentional or simply accidental. The fire started from the grass, but the strong bura unfortunately blew the flames around, giving strength to the fire, and quickly saw it set the pine forest close to Zrće beach alight.

Make sure to follow our dedicated news page for more.

As Dnevnik writes on the 16th of July, 2019, at about 01:00, a fire broke out in a pine forest on the famous Zrće beach in Novalja on the island of Pag. Visitors were evacuated and the extinguishing of the fire was progress, the police reported this morning.

Due to the presence of the firefighting vehicles, traffic between Pag-Novalja above Zrće beach was halted for several hours, and traffic is now permitted along one lane, with police regulation.

"The fire was stopped at around 300 metres from a hospitality facility, what was most difficult to deal with was the wind direction, and we can't be sure if evacuation is necessary in those cases. However, they decided to evacuate and that was the best choice. The clubs were not threatened.

A large number of people were in the woods so the police had a lot of work to do, and the co-ordination of the firefighters and police officers was excellent. People were fleeing because the fire had spread in all directions and nobody knew where to go,'' Hrvoje Ostović of the Lika-Senj fire department added.

Željko Prša of the police said that the source and cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

"Whether the fire was purposeful or not will be seen after the fire is extinguished and we start looking for witnesses. When we know the conditions to see what has happened are secure, then we'll see. It's too early to talk about whether the fire was started purposely or not. There were thirty or forty policemen on the ground, and together with the firemen, they did the best job they could. Some of the people who were here got disoriented and went off into the woods, some of them were curious and wanted to see what it was all about - we've got all of them back to safety,'' he said.

"All three Canadairs have been returned back to base, the fire is under the control of the firefighters and they're putting it out, and all the tourists and the employees of the clubs that were in Zrće have been evacuated," stated a statement from MUP.

Foreign media have reported on the fire on Pag, as there are many foreign tourists in Novalja, and the Fresh Island Festival was also being held.

It's a whole forest fire at #freshisland pic.twitter.com/TRSGDIegTG

— Antonio Simmons (@antonio_simmons) July 15, 2019

Follow our news page for more.