About 150 hectares of forest and pastures in the Sutjeska National Park in the southeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are currently under fire, Park Director Zoran Čančar confirmed to Radio Free Europe (RSE).
Čančar told RSE that the fire is currently being extinguished by one helicopter of the Armed Forces of BiH, and two helicopters of the Helicopter Service of the BiH entity of Republika Srpska.
"Up on the slopes of Mount Zelengora, closer to Tjentište. I think that the current helicopters that extinguish the fire are not enough. I think that we need helicopters with a larger volume, which can carry a larger amount of water, because this is all that is thrown out, these are small amounts that are scattered in in the air," said Cancar.
He pointed out that the situation is "difficult" because of the wind, which prevents the localization of the fire element.
"The wind from different directions is moving the fire from one end to the other. It has reached a tall pine forest, so it is very difficult to put it out now. Some people are at the fire site, but the rocks have already heated up and cracked and there is a great danger for people who are there in preventing the spread of fire".
The fire has been active for the third day, and in addition to the helicopter, members of the Territorial Fire Rescue Unit, the Voluntary Fire Company, the Civil Protection of Foča and the workers of NP Sutjeska were also involved in the extinguishing, and the firefighters from Gack also arrived to help.
Boris Trninić, director of the Entity Administration of Civil Protection, warned earlier for the Srna agency that in the Sutjeska National Park, "a hundred-year-old conifer forest is burning in the Tjentišta locality".
He requested that a fire-fighting helicopter of the Helicopter Unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia be urgently engaged, so that it would help the Helicopter Service of the RS and the personnel engaged in the field.
The State Minister of Trade and Economic Relations, Staša Košarac, also asked for help from Belgrade, who said that the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina should approve the engagement of a helicopter from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia that will help extinguish the fire.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konaković, said that the authorities of Republika Srpska, in the event of the need to engage a helicopter to extinguish the fire at Tjentište, should first contact the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and only then the institutions of other countries.
Konaković pointed out that the helicopters of the Armed Forces of BiH are ready for interventions and extinguishing fires in every part of BiH and that they have shown efficiency and skills in the past weeks.
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