We have had similar cases, but never of such scope and size. However, it would always be one fire, not divided into 50 or so places like this. The flames were up to 3 meters high in some places, and mostly 1.5 meters high. I have been a firefighter for 43 years and I have never had such an obvious intervention, that the situation on the ground itself indicates that it was most likely arson. We talked about everything after the intervention, the firefighters immediately recognized it as something čstrange and unusualč because there is no rational explanation. It is a forest area that is not transparent. The perennial dry cover on the ground was burning, and the fire was fortunately slowed down by the green vegetation, which was about 50 centimeters, he told 24sata. Stjepan Koškicommander of DVD Valpovo.
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Valpovo: Firefighters extinguished the fire in 50 places, the police are investigating whether it was arson
The fire in the forest between Valpovo and Narda broke out on Wednesday, May 1, in the afternoon. It is suspected that the fire was caused by a human factor because it burned in 50 different places in the forest, and each fire was of different sizes. The smallest were about 15 square meters, and some were even 200-300 square meters, we learned from the firefighters.
– At first glance, the fire was at the edge of the forest in the area of storm drains and access roads, it looked smaller and the firefighters extinguished it, but it turned out that the fire was also deep in the forest. We noticed that there was no sudden ignition of the fire and large air currents, no sudden spread of the fire, it was burning at a pace that was not alarming, so we started extinguishing the fire in the direction from one surface to the other – Koški tells us and he adds that he immediately asked the 112 center to hire additional forces.
Valpovo: Firefighters extinguished the fire in 50 places, the police are investigating whether it was arson |
A belt of forest was burning, which consists of plantation areas, that is, the forests of Canadian poplar plantations owned by Croatian Forests, adds the commander of DVD Valpovo.
– Of course I’m shocked, I don’t know who would cause 50 fires in the forest, the one who caused it should be severely punished – the resident of Valpova tells us.
Although everything indicates that the cause of this fire, which broke out in 50 different places, is the human factor, the commander of DVD Valpovo and the police are still without concrete evidence.
Valpovo: Firefighters extinguished the fire in 50 places, the police are investigating whether it was arson |
– I don’t want to speculate whether it was an arsonist or another motive, but the fact is that it is a human factor. However, the fact that it was a planned activity indicates that it is a location far from all the roads where weekenders and excursionists were, there were no people there celebrating Labor Day. It was windy weather, but the forest is configured in such a way that the wind did not penetrate deep into the forest, it is impossible to talk about the spread of fire with the help of lichens, brambles or any other due to bad weather conditions. What made us think the most was that none of the mentioned locations have anything to do with each other. It can be seen that there is a green belt of 6 meters between the fires, and even 30 meters, which means that it is also a human factor – believes Stjepan Koški, commander of DVD Valpovo.
However, in Valpovo, they remember the case eight years ago, when a man who was mentally unstable, in one day when it was extremely hot, set about 19 fires. Eyewitnesses saw him during the last arson attack and informed the police about everything.
Valpovo: Firefighters extinguished the fire in 50 places, the police are investigating whether it was arson |
The police also came to the field, and there is no major damage to the forest vegetation.
– We received a report on May 1, 2024 at 5:36 p.m. that the forest between Valpovo and Nard was on fire, and dry grass and low vegetation were burning. The fire was extinguished by members of two DVDs, Valpovo and Nard, and an area of about 5 thousand square meters was destroyed. There was no material damage and no danger to property or other people. The investigation is ongoing to see the cause of the fire – the police said.
Valpovo: Firefighters extinguished the fire in 50 places, the police are investigating whether it was arson |
From DVD Valpovo, 16 firefighters with four vehicles intervened, and from DVD Nard one vehicle and 16 firefighters intervened, and some even came to the intervention in a personal vehicle. The fire was extinguished the same evening at 20:40.
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