EU, Russian aircraft help Serbia battle wildfires
EU crews and a Russian aircraft help Serbia fight major wildfires as extreme heat and drought fuel fires across the Balkans.
Serbia requests international assistance to battle wildfires
Russian and European Union aircraft have been helping Serbian teams battle wildfires burning across the country, including a blaze that has raged for weeks in a protected nature reserve near the capital, Belgrade, according to state media.
The operation in Deliblatska Pescara continued into Monday, as Serbia’s RTS reported that efforts were also underway to extinguish a separate fire in the southwestern Stolovi mountain range.
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Serbia’s Interior Minister, Ivica Dacic, described the situation in Deliblatska Pescara as “extremely difficult,” according to Euro News, with more than 400 personnel deployed to the area each day.
President Aleksandar Vucic said Belgrade had turned to both the EU and Russia once it became clear Serbia’s own resources were not enough.
“The very second we realised that our own forces were no longer sufficient, we immediately requested urgent assistance from Russia and the European mechanism,” he said.
Russia deployed an Ilyushin Il-76 water-bombing aircraft to Serbia on Wednesday, and according to RTS, it had dropped 168 tonnes of water on the two fires on Sunday — 126 tonnes in Deliblatska Pescara and 42 tonnes in Stolovi.
The EU response includes four Black Hawk helicopters from Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, along with teams of firefighters and vehicles from Germany and Romania.
Serbia is not an EU member but can request aid under the bloc’s Civil Protection Mechanism, a system that allows EU countries to pool emergency resources for disasters. Belgrade formally asked for help on Friday.
Earlier in the summer there, Serbia sent a firefighting helicopter and response team to Spain, when various blazes stretched the bloc’s own resources thin.
Fires are also burning across the border in North Macedonia, where a blaze near the town of Strumica reportedly damaged at least one home.
A large fire meanwhile broke out over the weekend between Bosnia and Croatia, forcing the closure of the main road linking the Bosnian city of Trebinje to the Croatian tourist city of Dubrovnik, stranding thousands of travellers and prompting the evacuation of nearby villages.
The wildfire season now unfolding across the Balkans has been driven by an unusually hot, dry summer that has left much of the region primed to burn.
