If It Rains, All Will be Well

One firefighting plane that can fly, another one that is being serviced in Germany, and a helicopter in perspective is the whole firefighting aircraft that The Directorate for Safety and Rescue (DPR) can count on throughout this year’s fire season.

It seems that this year again, firefighters will be looking towards the sky, rather than towards their scarce equipment, which is seldom renewed.

Although Montenegro’s protection and rescue system prides itself on successfully preventing human losses, wildfires cause several hundred million euros worth of damage.

According to the EFFIS, Montenegro suffers an average loss of more than 180 km2 of forestland, and protected areas are no exception.  That is a significantly higher figure than that of many times larger France, where fire annually swallows up approx. 110 km2 of forest area.

From The Forest Service, they state that the surface of the ”burned forest area in state and private ownership” for the last decade is half the number of EFFIS- 901, 39 km2.

Despite the difference in figures and calculation methods, in Montenegro, which is still considered to be the country with high forestland percentage, wildfires, as well as illegal logging threaten to change ecosystem and micro-climate.

Protection from the wildfires, which swallow up great spaces, isn't in any way better prepared compared to the previous years. Specialized unit for the wildfire suppression, like some neighboring countries have, is still not on the horizon.

The majority of the wildfires are set by people, but long and ineffective investigations and the scarce and light sanctions don’t seem to discourage arsonists, showed the investigation of the Centre of Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG).

At the moment, Montenegro has only one working fire airplane, “air-tractor”, on disposal.  Of another two that the Directorate for Protection and Safety owns, it is possible to count on one, which is currently serviced in Germany, until the beginning of fire season.  The third one is useless, according to Zoran Miljanic, state secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), so that “MIA would begin negotiations with the Government about the procurement of 10 million worth multi-purpose helicopter“.

Two helicopters MIA currently has on the disposal date back to the 70s, and the “youngest” one is from 1998. Therefore, the first goal of DSR under the new management would be upgrading the used- up aircraft unit, Miljanić told CIN-CG.

Still, the reinforcement can’t be expected during the ongoing season.

“MIA will propose the helicopter procurement to the Government only after the budget adoption. We will also apply for international donations, which would be the best way for the funding. “, Miljanić explained.

He states that, as before, the municipalities will be in charge of funding human and material resources of the local services for protection and rescue. MIA and the army will help during the season, when the resources of the local services deplete, while the international assistance will contribute only if the state’s capacities turn out to be insufficient.

Still, Miljanić announced readiness of DSR to hear all the complaints and solve the issues they are in charge of.

Big funding, even bigger damage

According to the Wildfires Report by the State Audit Commission, fire damage for the period between 2012-2018 is more than six million euros. However, non-governmental organization KOD, published in their Forestry Brochure the results of their own damage assessment, using EU criteria, according to which the total damage amounts to 700 million euros.

Vuk Iković, biologist and member of KOD, explained that the difference in figures is the consequence of methodology that in Montenegro officially calculates only direct damage, which is the loss of wood mass, while the indirect damage is incomparably higher.

Wildfires damages are classified as direct and indirect, while the total damage is the sum of both, Iković told CIN-CG.

He states that wildfires cause the forest to lose its crucial value for humans- oxygen production, while many species permanently lose their habitats and food sources.

“It takes at least 40 years for the forest to recover from a wildfire. Fire causes instant vanishing of everything that have been forming for the decades, or even centuries, while the land loses its biomass, becoming permanently barren.”, Iković told CIN-CG.

Nusret Kalač, recently removed as director of Forest Service, states that it is not their responsibility to take care of ecological losses, but only economic ones.

According to KOD, throughout the last decade, the budget of DSR has been increasing, while the wildfires damage has been on the rise.

“DSR’s budged for 2012 was 1.962.389, 27 eur, and in 2019 it raised to 3.497.529, 33 eur, while the burned area from 2011 to 2013 is smaller compared to the 2017- 2919 period. (564 km2, compared to 673 km2)”,  it is stated in KOD’s Forestry Brochure.

From DSR, it’s been told to CIN-CG, that the budget has been spent on payments of wages, contributions, equipment and maintenance costs, and various money transfers for which they didn’t state identities of recipients, aviation unit taxes, civil protection campaign costs, system upgrading, etc.

Environmental crime still not recognized

Iković states that the wildfires are mostly human-caused, arising from burning for land clearing, mushroom growth, land development, or for the purpose of covering up the illegal logging.

According to him, the lack of a legal framework with regard to wildfires prosecution and environmental crime, in general, significantly contributes to the greater number of wildfires.

Basic State Prosecutor in Podgorica told CIN-CG that there’s no record of wildfires per se, as this is not a separate offense. Instead, wildfires fall under the category of offenses causing danger.  Unlike Basic State Prosecutors in other municipalities, Podgorica BSP didn’t send their records on wildfires to CIN-CG.

While the information from other BSPs for the period of 2010- 2020, show a very low rate of persecutions, Forest Service recorded 1001 cases of wildfires during the same period.

Therefore, though there have been 222 cases in Pljevlja, local BSP had only three cases, which all ended without the sentence.

The greatest number of cases regarding wildfires throughout the last decade has been recorded in Bijelo Pole- eight of them. Two of them were concluded with the official note stating that there’s no basis to proceed, three charges were dismissed, two cases are in progress, and one case is in the phase of the investigation.

Except for Podgorica, there have been only five prison sentences, two recommendations for psychiatric treatment, and two suspended sentences. The shortest prison sentence was 40 days, there were two six-months sentences, and one of ten months, while the longest one was one-year sentence.

The forest land concession holders don’t pay attention to the protection of wildfires, either.

According to the State Audit Commission’s Report on Wildfires Protection Success from 2019. „No concession holder on the territory of Montenegro brought up the plan for wildfires prevention“. Penalties range from 500 to 10 000 euros.  From Administration for Inspection Affairs, it hasn’t been answered to CIN if forestry inspection controlled concession holders during 2020, whether any and how many of them were penalized.

National parks also endangered

Degree of disregard for the natural resources is obvious in the lack of the protection in National parks, where, despite the detailed plans, wildfires often break out.

Source of CIN-CG, an expert informed about the situation in national parks, states that the Tara canyon in NP Durimitor burned 12 years in row, until the 2019, which, consequently changed the structure of the forest.

Where there was a conifer forest, now there’s deciduous one, and vice versa, said this source.

He explained that in the canyon of river Draga ( NP Durmitor) it was not possible to execute deforestation of the burned forest, because it would lead to soil erosion, so the burned conifer forest stayed there, infeasible to regrow.

From The National Parks it’s been told to CIN-CG, that since 2017, there hasn’t been any damage from the wildfires. For the period from 2010 to 2017 possible- to- regrow burned area has been about 3.390 ha, while non- renewable amounts to 550 ha.

They didn’t answer CIN’s request to deliver data about damaged areas where the forest hasn’t been completely burned or other burned ecosystems like swamps and maquis.

In September 2020, in NP Lake Skadarsko, a swamp area of 12, 13 km2 burned for four days. From The National Parks, they explained that the area has been inaccessible, and for the cane-grass is easy to regrow species, there was no need for the damage assessment.

Bojan Zeković from The Center for Protection and Research of Birds of Montenegro states that the just like forests, swamps are highly endangered habitats, invaluable for biodiversity.

“Swamps are even worse off than forests, due to the general attitude that it is worthless territory- mosquitos and reed.  But swamps are invaluable for the fight against the climate change, especially on Mediterranean that will be hit hard”, Zeković told CIN.

Firefighters lack basic conditions

Quite a few firefighters expressed their dissatisfaction with the working conditions in services.

.“We are not ready for the season. We have ten water backpacks, but we need at least 50 “, Goran Tripković, member of the service for protection and rescue (SPR) in Nikšić told CIN-CG.

This year, members of SPR Nikšić, got protective masks and boots for the wildfires, for the first time in more than 10 years. Procurement of the new uniforms has also begun, and it will be done by June.

“For years, we have been barely managing with uniforms more than 10 years old, which haven’t been properly maintained, and thus are highly toxic. Fire uniform has a limited shelf- life, even with the proper maintenance, for which there’s no equipment in Montenegro. “, Tripković told CIN- CG

Although SPR Nikšić has two high quality fire engines, Tripković states that they are unusable on Montenegrin terrain.

“In 2007, we have been given by DSR two Mercedes Unimog fire engines, tailor- made for German well build fire- roads, but only making our jobs harder.

From Directorate for Protection and Rescue, they denied impracticality of these engines and emphasized engines’ great firefighting capacity. They told CIN- CG that the procurement was made in agreement with then regional commanders for protection and rescue.

At the beginning of the current year, a new, significantly smaller vehicle, Nisan Navarra has been procured, as told from Municipality of Nikšić to CIN- CG.

“This vehicle hasn’t been prepared for the wildfires yet, but still, it is not sufficient” said Tripković.

During the wildfires season, the goal is to protect civilians and property, states Slavko Tadić, also member of SPR Nikšić.

“In our circumstances, we barely manage that. We are waiting for Kornati to happen to us, so that someone pays attention, said Slavko referring to the tragedy on the Croatian islands of Koranti in 2007, when 12 firefighters fatally died during the wildfire suppression, and only one survived severe burns.

Tadić states that Montenegro lacks specialized response team for wildfires. He participated in one unsuccessful attempt by DSP to form such team in collaboration with EU. The goal was to form a fully equipped and trained team that would work with wildfires in hard-to- reach areas, according to the highest standards.

Although professional equipment has been provided for the trainees, they didn’t actually had access to it.

“Team has never been formed.  Portable water pumps, hoses, firefighting wyes, water buckets for helicopters, and many other wildfires suppression equipment has never been used, and it is not known where it is stored.”, said Tadić.

From Directorate for Safety and Protection, they told CIN-CG that this equipment is supposedly stored in warehouses, as a part of the mandatory reserve.

As to why specialized unit has never been formed, they answered that due to the lack of the training centre, Montenegro also lacks teams for responeses to the various types of hazards.

Local services for rescue are also bothered by lack of personnel, state sources of CIN-CG.

Ratko Pejović, president of Firefighters’ Trade Union of Montenegro, and member of SPR in Pljevlja, states that  the number of 30 firefighters in the service it too small considering great forest areas, that often burn during the summer.

“Only three members stay on duty in the case of an urgent intervention.”, states Pejović for CIN-CG.

Immolation instead of the civilian support unit

“Citizens who clear their land by fire, only need to make a call so we can send our patrol to safeguard the process, Predrag Milikić, a firefighter in the SPR unit in Podgorica and president of firefighting trade union at the Association of Trade Union, told CIN-CG.

.Although SPR in Podgorica issues warnings every year, land owners usually don’t call when burning the land, Milikić explained.

The citizens are ignorant of the importance of the timely intervention which is also obvious in the lack of wildfires reports, especially when they’re far away from the houses.

Only six voluntary firefighting units and civil support unit “on the paper”, confirm the lack of civil involvement in the process of the protection from wildfires.

From the DSR, they told CIN-CG, that during the previous10 years, two attempts to establish Civilian Support Unit failed due to the lack of funding and inability to find the appropriate unit members.

Miljanić states that there won’t be waiting for civil support unit formation for another 10 years.

“We will decide very soon, whether to completely shut down the civil support sector, or to finally make it work. “, said Miljanic.

Aerial assistance- ineffective

Zlatko Ćitović, engineer of the fire protection and commander of the SP unit in Herceg Novi told CIN-CG that the effectiveness of the three “air- tractors” Montenegro owns, is incomparable to that of the “canadairs”, Montenegro lacks, but that were used in ex- Yugoslavia.

“Canadairs” can scoop up to 6000 l, while air tractor scoops up to 3000.  Besides, “canadairs” are incomparably faster because they pick up water while flying “, he explained.

.From DSR they told that they don’t plan “canadairs” procurement , due to the high price, planes always being purchased in pair, and very high maintenance costs.

Milan Gazdić, forestry engineer, and one of the authors of the KOD brochure states that “ if we have estimated the damage to be 700 million of euros, than “canadairs” are not an expensive option.

During 2017, when, from June to September there was a record number of 350 wildfires on the territory of Herceg Novi, the greatest contribution has been given by Croatian “canadairs”, states Ćirović.

This was not a part of the international aid in MUP organization, but Ćirović’s friends from SPR Dubrovnik answered his plea for help.

Ćirović told that the aircraft aid in 2017 was extremely unorganized, and waiting for the plane throughout the whole day, was not uncommon.

From DSR, they state that during the summer of 2017, 3125 wildfires were identified, and it was impossible to cover everything with their resources (one half- working and two working planes).

“Priorities were set according to the emergency level “, they said.

Without the solid aircraft, during the critical situations, Montenegro will have to rely on international help, which is sometimes inadequate, such as was  the case with the  Ukrainian airplane in 2017, that didn’t prove deft on Montenegrin terrain, states Ćirović.

According to the explanation from DSR, international aircraft aid in 2017 has been made of two planes from Israel, a helicopter from Bulgaria, a plane from Ukraine and a helicopter from Switzerland, with approx.30 members of crew. Costs amounted to approx. 70 000 euros, while the Switzerland team realized everything at its own expense.

Learning from the EU contries

Gazdić states that responsible and unified operating can significantly reduce consequences of the wildfires. He worked on the wildfires forest protection on Sicily, where, according to him, the responsible institutional work led to multifold surface reduction of the burned area, while the number of wildfires stayed the same.

The first step is risk assessment and the making of detailed plans. Wildfires database, modeled on the European one, is also necessary.

“It encompasses all the information about wildfires risks and answers the main questions of wildfire emergence – who, when, how, where. We don’t have such data “, states Gazdić.

Modernization and new technologies are also necessary, as well as technology for wildfires tracking and prevention.  Collaboration between the institutions such as The Forest Service, Police Department, judiciary, concession holders, safety and protection services is also necessary.

Gazdić also warned on the danger of climate changes and the requisite of adaptation by the systematic upgrade.   “In the north of Montenegro there are already significant climate change consequences- due to drought there are hundreds of thousands cubics of dried trees.”, states Gazdić.

Call 112

From the Forest Service, they state that in the case of wildfire, they count on 190 rangers, 80 guards, and in the case of firefighting, all of 130 engineers and technicians are obliged to help. Besides the two tanks of 10 cubic, they have 250 hydration packs, 150 fire brooms, cars for the transport, and tools.  On the meeting with the Government, on the May 12th, it’s been decided for them to deliver the list of the equipment they lack. They warned the forest users to behave responsibly, organized duties in the management units and activated an alert system- unique call number of the Operative- communication center- 112.

In Slovenia, they are all “Gamsi”, when needed

The president of the professional firefighting association of Slovenia, Milan Korošak, states for CIN-CG that the decentralized system isn’t effective in Montenegro due to the lack of human resources and under-equipped SPRs.

In Slovenia, according to him, the whole system operates under the MIA, including volunteer fire associations, who work in synchronization.

The number of volunteer firefighters in Slovenia amounts to incredible 165 000, of which 35 000 qualify as professional firefighters, Volunteer Firefighters Association of Slovenia told CIN-CG.

“Putting out wildfire starts five minutes from the start of the fire, and all the citizens are working on the prevention“, states Korošak.

Professional services purchase new fire trucks every five to seven years, upon which they give them to the volunteer associations. Uniforms are procured every 5 years, and earlier if needed.

“Specialized company works with the uniforms, and examines the level of toxicity after each usage.”, said Korošak.

For the wildfires at inaccessible terrains, in Slovenia, there’s a specialized unit called The Gamsi, meaning chamois in Slovenian, which symbolizes their dexterity. They operate under the full equipment and stay on the terrain for days, when needed, said Korošak.

Boat owners gave hand

“I’ ve never seen such a horror before. At the Cape of Veslo some 150- 200 tourists surrounded by the fire, and there’s no chance to approach them “, Zlatko Ćirović commander of the SSP Herceg Novi, recalled for CIN- CG the events of the July 17^th 2017 night.

According to Ćirović, as the only possible way of evacuation was by sea, he contacted Maritime Security and Army of Montenegro for the help. However, the adequate reaction was missing, due to unpreparedness of these institutions to answer.

“Luckily, big enough number of people with private vessels gathered and started evacuation on the Cape of Veso“, states Ćirović.

“The only thing we could do as the service for safety was to spread the message to those people to put some cloth on their face as the carbon monoxide protection. “.

Maritime Safety told CIN-CG, that their vessel needed some time to arrive, and that they ordered to the private vessel owners to participate in the action. They explained that they currently have only one fireboat, but they are working on improvement of their equipment.

Navy didn’t answer the question, but they stated that they reached the beach in the early morning hours, and that the army helped later during that day.

Ćirović states that DSR behaved irresponsibly during the big fires in Luštica in 2017.

“They sent firefighters from other municipalities without the funding for accommodation and food, so that the whole organization fell on us, in the moment of the greatest crisis. We ate fast food and slept in front of the fire trucks, without any organized place for a break. “, states Ćirović.

From DSR they told CN-CG that the costs of the firefighters’ stay were covered by MIA, but in the case of the stays longer than one day, costs were the municipality’s responsibility.

Nobody’s an expert after six hours training

Zlatko Ćirović states that he refused to send his unit on the training for hazardous substances “from 9 to 15h”.

“One-day training for hazardous substances with two coffee breaks, won’t transform anyone into an expert. If some hazard happens, I would have to send members of my unit and state that they have been trained. There are countless hazardous substances: chemical, nuclear, etc. and in Montenegro, we don’t even have protective equipment for something like that.“

Asked about the duration and implementation of this training, DSR answered that in the majority of municipalities there’s no adequate personal or collective uniform, nor the adequate training that would continuously take place.

Đurđa RADULOVIĆ