Kornati tragedy:2007-2013

CROPLAYER · August 30, 2013

Kornati are a National Park in Croatia consisting of around 100 islands. They are wildly popular with tourists and are mainly uninhabited. croatia_dalmatia_sibenik_national_park_k

During the summer of 2007 there were 750 fires on the Croatian cost. On August 30, a new fire broke out on the island of Kornat, part of the Kornati National park. A team of 23 firemen was sent on an Mi-8 helicopter on what they thought would be just a routine mission. Upon arrival, they split into two teams, one with 6 firemen and the other with 17. The latter split up one more time when three firemen lost their communication gear and again when the fourth one went checking for the signal, while trying to call his superiors. The remaining 13 were stranded between two hills with no water whatsoever, since the large water canister landed 500 meters away from them. While searching for it, they got encircled by a wall of fire. Although the burning grass was only 10 cm tall, the firemen didn't have the necessary equipment and had nowhere to run. In only a minute, six of them were killed instantly, while the other seven remained lying on the ground, badly burned, waiting for help more than two hours. After the rescue, they were sent to the hospital in Zadar and then transferred to hospitals in Zagreb and Split. Six of them died in hospital because of serious burns covering large areas of their bodies. The fire itself had nowhere to spread, and was soon naturally extinguished, bringing up many questions about the necessity of the intervention. Official report states that they have died from a natural phenomenon called "eruptive fire". Allegedly, the firemen were killed by an unexploded CBU-87dumped over Kornat island by NATO planes returning from the Kosovo war in 1999.

?There are many controversial's  around this tragedy. First report of fallen firefighters came in around 16:28 and rescue started on 18:20. Opinion of Croatian pubilc is that the investigation was done poorly and that there is some cover up from the goverment.

On the left photo you can see injured firefighters after the fire run them over, ALIVE and waiting for help, and not so badly burned. Photo was taken by a recon helicopter. On right photo you can see rescue operation and firefighters heavily burned. People think that helicopter that took photos, or maybe another helicopter, pored fuel accidentally on them. There is also a recording of firefighter in charge of the group, Joško Klari?, talking to the dispatcher saying that half (!) of his group is wounded and is on his way with the rest of them to find them and help them. Also, there is suspicion of military taking bodies to Divulje (airforce base) and taking them back before rescue mission started, not helping any injured in any way. As already stated in the begging, Croatia was hit by massive fires that summer. Croatian Air Force are handling firefighting planes and helicopters (Canadair's and Tractors), of whom we had very little in 2007 (2 Canadairs and 3-4 Tractors + 6-7 military helicopters). All air support was fighting a massive fire on the Island of Hvar. Joško Klari? asked for help and stated that they can't extinguish the fire. One Canadair made few drops on his way to Hvar but he lacked proper communication with people on ground and so he didnt help much. And last, only one man was charged for this incident, Captain of the JVP (City Fire Department) Šibenik for sending them there and not responding  appropriate to the help calls. His trail is still on, 6 years after tragedy.

I apologize for my English, i wrote this to show largest Croatian tragedy since war to you and to honor them. Thank you for reading.