Air forces fight the 100th summer fire
The Air Forces of the Firefighter Task Force of the Croatian Armed Forces (of the 93rd Air Base of the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence) on 24 August 2016 engaged five aircraft fighting the 100th fire in the season 2016.
Two Canadairs and three Air Tractors AT-802 were dispatched to the fire site at Danilo near Šibenik and to Biokovo Mountain (where they were prevented from fighting due to strong wind).
The Commander of the Firefighter Squadron, Lieutenant Colonel Davor Turković said the fire breaking out at Mučići-Brodarica was largest of the season. This firesite alone engaged seven firefighter aircraft, extinguishing the fire and cleaning up the fire site, and more than 300 water bombs.
The crucial thing to do was to contain the fire to prevent it from spreading to houses; we managed to put the fire under control and monitoring by the land forces. This morning the Squadron was dispatched to the fire at Danilo, and we shall dispatch forces to Biokovo Mountain as soon as the weather situation allows it“.
Fighting as many as 100 fires (21 in the Šibenik-Knin Country; 29 in the Split-Dalmatia County, 22 in the Zadar County, 15 in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, two in the Istra County and one in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County) since 20 June 2016 which was the beginning of the 2016 firefighter season – the air forces have spent 27 days (663 hours) in firefighter actions, dropping cca 22,000 tons of water. In addition to firefighting, the air forces provided support to the land forces transporting 29 firefighters and 24 tons of equipment to the fire sites.