The Lord of Fire and his minions

Our country is burned area. As on sterile soil that has been exposed to fire and the elements, there is no forest, no ground vegetation, no grassy areas, mycorrhizae and microflora on the soil have been destroyed. Pillars template they rise to the sky. A gray-haired man who serves as the president of the republic flies a helicopter over a landscape of ash and burnt trees. But he is not worried, he says he expected more damage. He says we are a powerhouse in shutdown. He says that our helicopters are better than the ones that arrived from Europe to help. He is sitting in the veranda with the firefighters, who have been dressed in new uniforms, offering them sandwiches. He shoves sandwiches into their mouths. Eat, you are heroes. Behind them is a burnt landscape. Firefighters are uncomfortable. It is disgusting to us who watch. The labels were not removed from the uniforms.

Statesmen, military commanders and leaders go out on the scorched terrain in two ways, in two fundamentally different situations - when in the middle of the battle they support efforts to contain the disaster in solidarity or when after the battle they visit the burned area that their armies conquered.

After a month since the start of the fire in the protected area of ​​Deliblatska Peščara, after the despair, struggle and courage of the firefighters and locals, after the solidarity initiated by the students throughout the country, we are looking at the head of state coming from a completely different show. We do not see a man whose property he manages has been destroyed. We see a proud, arrogant, glory-loving creature that comes to the fire and acts like a conqueror. As a master who clothed and fed prisoners of war. As a master whose forces, the strongest in Europe, in the whole world, burned and seized all that vast land for him. As a fire lord.

photo: miloš milivojević / tanjug

SAND

The Deliblata sandstone is a unique natural monument in Europe. It is an oasis of life with an abundance of living species, from wild boar, roe deer, deer (sometimes wolf), over a huge number of bird species, to various rare, protected species. The vegetation is unique - about two-thirds of Peščara is under forest, through which truly fantastic walking paths lead. About 900 species of plants have been listed in the reserve, many of which are relics. The first such species were recorded in the diaries of Pal Kitaibel from the beginning of the 19th century, while Josif Pančić also wrote about the living world in the work "Living sand and plants that grow on it". In 1872, the Ministry of the Army from Vienna sent Jozef Vesely to study the area in detail. In 1873, Veseli returned to Vienna and published research on European flying sand and its culture, which became the basis for all subsequent afforestation of Peščara.

This island of sand, nestled between agricultural lands in the heart of southern Banat, was protected 49 years ago as a special nature reserve on an area of ​​34.829 hectares north of Pancevo, in parts of the municipalities of Kovin, Alibunar, Bela Crkva and Vršac. Sandstone is an aeolian landform - it was created by the work of winds coming down from the Carpathians to deposit loess and sand in the triangle formed by the Tamish and Danube rivers. It is the so-called continental dune field, the largest of its kind in Europe, which in the past was called "flying sand", and even the Sahara of Europe, and which the people of Banat in the area simply call Sand.

According to Ljubomir Menković's notable work "Aeolian Relief of Southeast Banat" from 2013, the wider area covered by sand covers a much larger area than the protected reserve. It covers an area of ​​almost 600 km², so dunes up to one kilometer long run in a southeast-northwest direction. Their altitude rises from the Danube, from 80 m to 197 m in the extreme northwest.

There are some doubts about the origin of this landform in ancient geological history, but researchers agree that a layer of sand 30 to 50 meters thick was deposited over the loess plain brought by the winds. The sand shifted and formed into dunes until the end of the 18th century, when the vegetation that covered most of the area was destroyed. Namely, due to logging and excessive grazing, the so-called desolation occurred in the 18th century, and then the area found itself at the center of history, exactly at the point of demarcation between the conflicting Habsburg and Turkish empires. During the Turkish incursions into the Banat in 1777 and 1778, parts of the forests were burned and cut down, settlements were destroyed, and the population moved out, so new sandy areas were opened up, which were spread over the surrounding fields by snow. It is recorded that in 1816, a strong hurricane roared through the southern Banat, which further spread the sand, allegedly carrying it all the way to Vienna and Pest. That's when afforestation began, which continues to this day.

photo: mo / tanjug

FOREST AND FLAME

The history of the sandstone is a constant struggle between deforestation and fire. According to the historical review published in 2023 by Mirjana Ćuk and colleagues, afforestation began in 1818, not by the decision of the Hungarian Parliament itself, but by the decision of the military authorities in Vienna, which at that time managed the Banat Military Territory. Forestry expert Franz Bachofen is tasked with calming the "flying sand" and making a binding plan based on experiences from northern Germany, France and Hungary. Appointed director of the forests of the Military Territory with headquarters in Bela Crkva, Bachofen begins measurements in 1810 and determines that out of a total of 40.660 hectares of sandstone, 16.800 are under loose sand.

Reforestation took place in many phases over two centuries, but was constantly interrupted and thwarted by fires. In one phase of reforestation, white and black pine were dominantly planted, and less hardwoods, which is considered inconvenient today because it favors the spread of fires. Peščara is like a notebook divided into squares by fire roads, medians, in order to keep fires under control, but you will constantly hear how, apart from the highway medians, the others are insufficiently maintained.

Sandstone is on fire almost every year. Thanks to that, there are decades of experience in fire protection, but this summer it was ignored. Judging by the data from the work of M. Milenković, S. Munćan and V. Babić, there were about 270 of them, the most terrible of which was the fire in 1996, when 3600 hectares were burned, and large fires occurred in 1973, 1990 and 2007. There are several organizations of nature lovers in Pesk, but the reserve is taken care of by "Vojvodina šume", which is obliged to maintain the averages and take all measures to prevent and contain fires before they get out of control.

ELEMENT

The fire in Peščara started on July 21 in the central, inaccessible part. On an apparently peaceful day, news came from the far east about the conflict in the South China Sea, in Serbia the President of the Republic received the outgoing German ambassador and explained the results of the "Who are you?" campaign.

In the meantime, the video surveillance for early detection, which the Vojvodina forests in Peščara have had since 2006, detected a fire at around 1:00 p.m. in the area of ​​the farm unit "Deliblatski pesak - Vrela", department 74/a, d. The ground fire engulfed the forest floor in stands of black and white pine that are about seven decades old. It was located the same evening, and then twenty people on duty, removal of combustible material and watering of fire belts were organized.

However, five days later, on July 26, the teams on duty noticed a reactivation. The fire was initially brought under control, but the wind fanned it and spread it to an additional five hectares. The fire-rescue units and the helicopter of the Ministry of Interior were engaged, which localized the fire again in twelve flights. The news about the fire reaches the local media and networks, and already then experts warn about the specificity of the terrain: humus and dry roots mixed with sand allow underground smoldering that is not visible. Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dacic declares that the fire in Deliblatska peščara has been extinguished. That statement will later be one of the bases for requests to investigate the responsibility of the authorities.

On August 2, US President Donald Trump abandons the attack on Iran, a migrant crisis breaks out in the Spanish city of Ceuta, and the fire is reactivated in Peščara. The fire was reportedly localized in the same pattern, with ground and air forces. The patrols continue, but the public learns about this episode only later. On Wednesday, August 5, around 2:00 p.m., the crews on duty noticed a new fire. The wind lifts and spreads it like lightning. According to local reports, the fire surrounded the employees of the Vojvodina forest, one engineer was slightly injured, and three firefighters lost contact at one point.

The fire is spreading to about 300 hectares in all directions. The wind reaches 80 to 90 kilometers per hour and changes direction several times a day. Fire storms are forming, as the Department for Emergency Situations will later describe. The fire moves from the ground to the tops of the pines, which the juniper contributes to. The element of fire is spreading through the reserve. Disaster is on the horizon. The helicopters fail to contain her. Two days later, the fire reaches the Čardak picnic area, a pavilion burns, the news spreads to the local media in Kovin and Pancevo. The crisis headquarters in Kovino does not provide information, the fire reaches the surrounding settlements, the first evacuations begin. On Friday August 7, the fire got out of control.

Faced with the disaster, the students from Pancevo with their choirs on Saturday, August 8, call for the collection of aid. Soon, help is being collected throughout the country. Both volunteers and the media arrive in the sand. The authorities are still downplaying the scale of the accident, unwilling to ask for help from abroad even though Serbia is a member of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

More than 3000 hectares of forest are burning. "The action is poorly coordinated and while people are fighting the fire, SNS individuals and police generals are parading over Peščar. City leaders thank Aleksandar Vučić for stopping the fire while the fire is engulfing pine forests and pavilions in Čardak. The SNS commissioner for Pancevo, who should manage the enormous efforts of employees in Vojvodina forests to contain the fire, Ivan Tešić, says that the wind is moving to the side of the world: "north-south", according to a statement from one of the congregations from Pancevo. with the message "You will be responsible for Pesak".

The smoke from Peščara is spreading to the surrounding cities, reaching Belgrade as well, and Timisoara in neighboring Romania is in a kind of state of emergency due to smoke pollution. In the following days, pyrocumulus clouds, clouds that only occur during huge fires, volcanic eruptions and nuclear explosions, will be recorded. Finally, on August 20, while images of thousands of burned hectares are spreading on the Internet, precious help arrives from the Russian Federation - the Ilyushin IL-76 transporter plane, which already flies over the sandbar ten times in the first two days. Although they release 40 tons of water in a rush, water is not the solution, but with his arrival, the situation begins to be brought under control.

Finally, on August 21, Serbia activates the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The Copernicus satellite mapping service was activated on August 8. Four helicopters from the rescEU strategic reserve were sent - two from the Czech Republic, one from Slovakia, one from Romania, along with a Romanian ground team of 69 people with 15 vehicles and a German team of 55 members with 24 vehicles. The base of operation is in Bela Crkva. A day later, the head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Luka Čaušić, declares that "without some autumn rain that lasts for days, this fire will not be fully extinguished."

photo: mup / fonet

SANITATION

The rehabilitation of Deliblatska Peščara will only begin when the fire is definitively extinguished. Although we listened to the Minister of Environmental Protection Sara Pavkov, whose task in recent days seemed to be only to put out the "media fire", as she already has a plan to reforest Pesak, the actual plan can only be made after the fire. The manager of the reserve, JP "Vojvodinašume" has a deadline of three months to submit a remediation plan to the Department of Forests of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, in accordance with the Law on Forests and the Law on Nature Protection.

The first step is recording the burned area and mapping the habitats of endangered and damaged plant and animal species, then stabilizing the soil and protecting it from aeolian erosion, because sand binding was the original purpose of the forest there. Then natural regeneration should follow where possible, first of all on the steppe pastures, which regenerate quickly, while artificial regeneration is carried out on the rest, with the removal of burnt and partially damaged trees. This burnt forest, if not removed, could become a habitat for a dangerous insect - the bark beetle, but this does not mean that it is correct to completely remove all burnt trees.

Undoubtedly, the replacement of species will also be considered: due to the risk of fire, a mixed deciduous forest — acacia, honey oak, linden and hemlock — may be planted instead of pine, using planting material of certified origin. A particularly open question is water, because the sandstone has no surface streams, so a long-term irrigation plan and source of supply is necessary for new seedlings. Timescales are decadal: an acacia stand can sprout in three years, but it takes at least twenty years from the first sowing and planting before the forest can be seen again where it was burned.

The risks of forest fires further increased. Due to climate change, according to the regional reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPCC), forest fires are becoming more frequent and destructive - water levels are becoming lower, heat waves are stronger, and droughts are longer during the summer months, which we witness in the harshest and most obvious way during the summer of 2026. Due to rising temperatures, the earth dries out and areas like Pesco become more prone to fires. These data have been known almost since the beginning of the century and it cannot be said that the authorities in Serbia are not informed about it. On the contrary, thanks to the IPA projects of the European Union, Peščara has been working on the development of early detection and rapid response to fires for years.

However, the fire, which has been going on for more than a month, inexorably testifies that preventive measures were not implemented. The reluctance of the authorities to take action is not unusual, but the cover-up and concealment of data for several weeks, along with the fiery element that got out of control, raised various doubts among the locals and other citizens of Serbia.

Various theories about the plan to build wind farms appeared on social networks, and the government, primarily the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade (it is unclear on what basis of jurisdiction, except for apparent closeness to the regime), threatened to keep quiet about it. The Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, Milan Antonijević, highlighted this in his statements on Radio Television of Serbia, which is probably a historical case of the Commissioner seeking restrictions on freedom of speech. There is no reliable data on what caused such poor coordination and concealment of the fire. It could be that the government prone to corruption simply wanted to hide what the European money was spent on, not expecting that Pesak would turn into Armageddon, or maybe it is a matter of incompetence and concealment of information from superiors.

"We taught love to fire, so that our earth no longer burns." It is a verse by Vasko Popa, one of our greatest poets, who was born in the village of Grebenac, on the edge of Deliblatska peščara, in one of the settlements that were directly threatened by the fire. Despite the superhuman efforts of firefighters, volunteers and locals, despite the help sent by students and citizens who had nothing else to do, despite appeals to request foreign help earlier, the forest fire in Pesko completely got out of control this summer and caused damage that will take decades to repair. Someone could conclude that Pesak in flaming is a parable of today's Serbian citizens and students who are ruled by a malignant regime that is not worthy to protect ecosystems such as Peščara, to preserve our natural treasures, our land. That's why, as Popa prophetically said, in the coming days there is no other choice but to teach fire to love. That our land no longer burns.

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