In 1977, the Deliblat sandbar was declared a Special Nature Reserve as a unique biodiversity formed on sandy soil, which does not exist anywhere else in Europe. Now over 700 hectares are burning. Stefan Cvetković, an evacuated resident of the village of Šumarak, tells "Vreme" how he experiences it
On Wednesday, August 5, around 13 pm, it broke out big fire in the Central Zone of the Special Nature Reserve Deliblatska peščara and very quickly, by the end of the day, it expanded to nearly 700 hectares.
The police, BIA and firefighters were sent to the location "Čardak" (Former recreation center) where a crisis headquarters was formed.
"I was there around 20 p.m.," Stefan Cvetković, a resident of the evacuated village of Šumarak, told Vreme. "There are huge complexes of pine forests that are several decades old to more than a hundred years old, acacia cultures and steppe vegetation are burning. From the beginning, the wind contributed to the spread of the fire in all directions, and inaccessibility is an additional problem."
In order for the sand to calm down, the Deliblata sandpit was systematically reforested from 1818 throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The afforestation proceeded by forming rectangular plots (so-called 'sections') measuring 600 x 900 meters, bordered by wide sandy medians. The entire Deliblat Cave is like a sheet of a mathematics notebook 'in squares', at least on maps, and sometimes in reality.
"During the SFRY, averages were regularly maintained, and organized youth work actions because regular annual maintenance is required due to the lush vegetation. But in the last thirty years, they have been quite neglected, except for a few 'main' ones," says Cvetković.
Today, the Deliblata sandstone is on the preliminary list for inclusion in the UNESCO list of "Biosphere Reserves."
There are no firefighting resources
"The next problem," Vremen's interlocutor continued, "is the lack of resources to extinguish the fire. Tankers cannot access the location of the fire, and extinguishing it with the help of MUP helicopters that have been engaged is not nearly enough. The special difficulty is that the helicopters cannot fly at night, because it is impossible to collect water from Deliblatska Bara and the Danube after dark. Therefore, the fire is extinguished manually, with devices that I saw last night in the crisis headquarters."
Excavators were also sent to the field to make a circle (ring) around the affected area. "I saw that on Wednesday, but considering that the fire has spread many times, it is obvious that this action does not have much effect," says Cvetković.
The village of Šumarak has been evacuated, a large number of policemen are on the roads leading to the village and the weekend settlement, access is not allowed. Next to the village passes the main road to Bela Crkva and further to Romania, which is passable.
Previous fires
"Major fires occurred in 1991," our interlocutor recalls, "then a huge fire in August 1996, partly in the same location as today, when 3.600 hectares of forest burned. That location was reforested in the meantime, and these are now 30-year-old forests, which burned again. It is difficult to understand how it is possible for a climate of such natural qualities and accessibility to burn for thirty years."
It also burned in 2007 in another part of the reserve towards Bela Crkva. Then the fire was stopped by a Kanader who had arrived from Niš, from the emergency center.
"It's obvious, I saw it with my own eyes, the technical conditions of fire defense in 1996 and today are the same - outdated or ineffective. The difference is that then the army was sent to the field, which I don't see now. The barracks in nearby Kovino is closed," says Cvetković.
Why are there no Canadians?
"I wonder if instead of stadiums, for example, Canadians could have been bought, firefighting planes? Now we have national stadiums, and national parks are worse. The nature of the Stara Planina is being put in the pipeline, the idea for a mine in the Jadar river valley is still undead, so I assume that this natural disaster will be passed without much hindsight," says Cvetković.
And he concludes: "This disaster has shown all the ineffectiveness of the fire protection system in all its aspects when it comes to defense against large fires which are a foreseeable threat in risky localities."
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