Serbia: N1 Serbia

20260920 01:00 UTC · 00:31:00 · 520 transcript segments · GDELT Visual Explorer · plain-text transcript · Event Map

Film strip

One frame every 4 seconds, 466 in all. Click a frame to jump the transcript to that moment, or click a line of the transcript to see what was on screen while it was said. Served from apprised.news, so it loads behind proxies that block Google Cloud Storage.

00:00:00
00:00:04
00:00:08
00:00:12
00:00:16
00:00:20
00:00:24
00:00:28
00:00:32
00:00:36
00:00:40
00:00:44
00:00:48
00:00:52
00:00:56
00:01:00
00:01:04
00:01:08
00:01:12
00:01:16
00:01:20
00:01:24
00:01:28
00:01:32
00:01:36
00:01:40
00:01:44
00:01:48
00:01:52
00:01:56
00:02:00
00:02:04
00:02:08
00:02:12
00:02:16
00:02:20
00:02:24
00:02:28
00:02:32
00:02:36
00:02:40
00:02:44
00:02:48
00:02:52
00:02:56
00:03:00
00:03:04
00:03:08
00:03:12
00:03:16
00:03:20
00:03:24
00:03:28
00:03:32
00:03:36
00:03:40
00:03:44
00:03:48
00:03:52
00:03:56
00:04:00
00:04:04
00:04:08
00:04:12
00:04:16
00:04:20
00:04:24
00:04:28
00:04:32
00:04:36
00:04:40
00:04:44
00:04:48
00:04:52
00:04:56
00:05:00
00:05:04
00:05:08
00:05:12
00:05:16
00:05:20
00:05:24
00:05:28
00:05:32
00:05:36
00:05:40
00:05:44
00:05:48
00:05:52
00:05:56
00:06:00
00:06:04
00:06:08
00:06:12
00:06:16
00:06:20
00:06:24
00:06:28
00:06:32
00:06:36
00:06:40
00:06:44
00:06:48
00:06:52
00:06:56
00:07:00
00:07:04
00:07:08
00:07:12
00:07:16
00:07:20
00:07:24
00:07:28
00:07:32
00:07:36
00:07:40
00:07:44
00:07:48
00:07:52
00:07:56
00:08:00
00:08:04
00:08:08
00:08:12
00:08:16
00:08:20
00:08:24
00:08:28
00:08:32
00:08:36
00:08:40
00:08:44
00:08:48
00:08:52
00:08:56
00:09:00
00:09:04
00:09:08
00:09:12
00:09:16
00:09:20
00:09:24
00:09:28
00:09:32
00:09:36
00:09:40
00:09:44
00:09:48
00:09:52
00:09:56
00:10:00
00:10:04
00:10:08
00:10:12
00:10:16
00:10:20
00:10:24
00:10:28
00:10:32
00:10:36
00:10:40
00:10:44
00:10:48
00:10:52
00:10:56
00:11:00
00:11:04
00:11:08
00:11:12
00:11:16
00:11:20
00:11:24
00:11:28
00:11:32
00:11:36
00:11:40
00:11:44
00:11:48
00:11:52
00:11:56
00:12:00
00:12:04
00:12:08
00:12:12
00:12:16
00:12:20
00:12:24
00:12:28
00:12:32
00:12:36
00:12:40
00:12:44
00:12:48
00:12:52
00:12:56
00:13:00
00:13:04
00:13:08
00:13:12
00:13:16
00:13:20
00:13:24
00:13:28
00:13:32
00:13:36
00:13:40
00:13:44
00:13:48
00:13:52
00:13:56
00:14:00
00:14:04
00:14:08
00:14:12
00:14:16
00:14:20
00:14:24
00:14:28
00:14:32
00:14:36
00:14:40
00:14:44
00:14:48
00:14:52
00:14:56
00:15:00
00:15:04
00:15:08
00:15:12
00:15:16
00:15:20
00:15:24
00:15:28
00:15:32
00:15:36
00:15:40
00:15:44
00:15:48
00:15:52
00:15:56
00:16:00
00:16:04
00:16:08
00:16:12
00:16:16
00:16:20
00:16:24
00:16:28
00:16:32
00:16:36
00:16:40
00:16:44
00:16:48
00:16:52
00:16:56
00:17:00
00:17:04
00:17:08
00:17:12
00:17:16
00:17:20
00:17:24
00:17:28
00:17:32
00:17:36
00:17:40
00:17:44
00:17:48
00:17:52
00:17:56
00:18:00
00:18:04
00:18:08
00:18:12
00:18:16
00:18:20
00:18:24
00:18:28
00:18:32
00:18:36
00:18:40
00:18:44
00:18:48
00:18:52
00:18:56
00:19:00
00:19:04
00:19:08
00:19:12
00:19:16
00:19:20
00:19:24
00:19:28
00:19:32
00:19:36
00:19:40
00:19:44
00:19:48
00:19:52
00:19:56
00:20:00
00:20:04
00:20:08
00:20:12
00:20:16
00:20:20
00:20:24
00:20:28
00:20:32
00:20:36
00:20:40
00:20:44
00:20:48
00:20:52
00:20:56
00:21:00
00:21:04
00:21:08
00:21:12
00:21:16
00:21:20
00:21:24
00:21:28
00:21:32
00:21:36
00:21:40
00:21:44
00:21:48
00:21:52
00:21:56
00:22:00
00:22:04
00:22:08
00:22:12
00:22:16
00:22:20
00:22:24
00:22:28
00:22:32
00:22:36
00:22:40
00:22:44
00:22:48
00:22:52
00:22:56
00:23:00
00:23:04
00:23:08
00:23:12
00:23:16
00:23:20
00:23:24
00:23:28
00:23:32
00:23:36
00:23:40
00:23:44
00:23:48
00:23:52
00:23:56
00:24:00
00:24:04
00:24:08
00:24:12
00:24:16
00:24:20
00:24:24
00:24:28
00:24:32
00:24:36
00:24:40
00:24:44
00:24:48
00:24:52
00:24:56
00:25:00
00:25:04
00:25:08
00:25:12
00:25:16
00:25:20
00:25:24
00:25:28
00:25:32
00:25:36
00:25:40
00:25:44
00:25:48
00:25:52
00:25:56
00:26:00
00:26:04
00:26:08
00:26:12
00:26:16
00:26:20
00:26:24
00:26:28
00:26:32
00:26:36
00:26:40
00:26:44
00:26:48
00:26:52
00:26:56
00:27:00
00:27:04
00:27:08
00:27:12
00:27:16
00:27:20
00:27:24
00:27:28
00:27:32
00:27:36
00:27:40
00:27:44
00:27:48
00:27:52
00:27:56
00:28:00
00:28:04
00:28:08
00:28:12
00:28:16
00:28:20
00:28:24
00:28:28
00:28:32
00:28:36
00:28:40
00:28:44
00:28:48
00:28:52
00:28:56
00:29:00
00:29:04
00:29:08
00:29:12
00:29:16
00:29:20
00:29:24
00:29:28
00:29:32
00:29:36
00:29:40
00:29:44
00:29:48
00:29:52
00:29:56
00:30:00
00:30:04
00:30:08
00:30:12
00:30:16
00:30:20
00:30:24
00:30:28
00:30:32
00:30:36
00:30:40
00:30:44
00:30:48
00:30:52
00:30:56
00:31:00

Transcript

Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.

00:00:22Good evening, this is another red line, I am Marina Fratucan. Omiš,
00:00:25Brač, Deliblatska Peščara, tables, the area around Trebinje and Mostar,
00:00:29could they have been prevented or at least brought under control faster,
00:00:33was the reaction of everyone in the chain of fire extinguishing in the countries
00:00:36of the region timely? How much do the countries of the region work on fire prevention,
00:00:40do firefighters have adequate equipment, could helicopters have
00:00:44been used earlier, and citizens warned earlier, when will
00:00:48we view fires as a consequence, whose causes should be addressed
00:00:51and finally, what about burned areas whose
00:00:54remediation sometimes takes more than decades, more prevention,
00:00:58less operative? About fires in the countries of the region on the red line tonight,
00:01:02Slobodan Milanović, professor at the Faculty of Forestry in Belgrade, Slavko
00:01:05Tucaković, chief fire commander in Croatia, and Božidar Kasalo, head
00:01:16of course, during the past month
00:01:19and more than a month, actually, almost two. September is the month,
00:01:22the situation on the ground should somehow calm down, we hope it
00:01:26is. However, even last weekend there were.
00:01:30active fires, primarily in Croatia, on Brač, Mr.
00:01:33Tucaković, that is one of the biggest fires,
00:01:36apart from the one that was, of course, in Omiš, which claimed human
00:01:39lives, as far as I understood, 14%
00:01:42of Brač was burned, you correct me if that is
00:01:46not the case, a large number of firefighters, about 200, according
00:01:49to the data from the wider area, dozens
00:01:52of vehicles, Canadair and so
00:01:54on, uh, I mentioned prevention in the introduction,
00:01:58you also mentioned it. What would you say
00:02:02now, at the end of September and after
00:02:05a really turbulent fire season in
00:02:08Croatia, what is the situation, who really failed,
00:02:12did it really have to be like this, well, first of all, thank you for the invitation to the
00:02:16show, I greet my colleagues, so I can
00:02:19say that this morning the fire on the island of Brač was localized, we can
00:02:22conclude that according to initial estimates, we have about 500
00:02:26hectares of burned surface, so dry grass, low...
00:02:30vegetation and some pine forest,
00:02:32so a large number of firefighters, who
00:02:36came to extinguish this fire, means first of all
00:02:39forces from the island of Brač were called, then Split-Dalmatia County, which were
00:02:43immediately introduced, and at the same time, forces were launched
00:02:47from the entire coast, from Primorje-Gorski Kotar,
00:02:50Istria all the way to Dubrovnik, Neretva, Šibenik, Zadar,
00:02:54so all the forces that were needed at that moment, uh,
00:02:57went to Brač, so to fight this
00:03:00fire, so, besides that fire on Brač,
00:03:03which was really big, violent, let's remember
00:03:07the fire near Omiš which was devastating, I would
00:03:11call it, I don't know, in my 15 years of career as
00:03:14chief fire commander, I haven't seen such a fire, something so
00:03:18terrible and when we talk about the color of the flame, it was not
00:03:22yellow, orange or red, but purple, which was
00:03:26really spreading due to strong wind, unfortunately there were
00:03:29also uh fatalities,
00:03:33so there are still people in the hospital in serious condition,
00:03:37really sincere condolences to all those who
00:03:40suffered here in the fire, so a great
00:03:43material damage that happened, so
00:03:46to people, some houses were burned or partially burned, so on
00:03:49agricultural and facilities, but also vineyards
00:03:53and everything else that was mentioned, it's irreparable damage when a fire occurs, so not only in
00:03:57terms of what I'm talking about.
00:04:00about direct damage, but also long-term damage, so there is no
00:04:03more forest, no life, no plants, no more animal world
00:04:07that was and all that happened and the worst thing that will
00:04:11happen now are floods or soil erosion that
00:04:14will happen and will actually take away, make one uh
00:04:18even worse damage in what could have happened, something worst that
00:04:21can happen, so it is now very necessary to react
00:04:25very quickly, so both with afforestation and with removal of trees,
00:04:29we are now in... in the area of Milna we found what burned ten
00:04:32years ago, those trees were still there, they are still there, so they burned again,
00:04:36you know, no one removed them and so on and so forth, so a lot needs to be
00:04:40established there and we can talk about it for a long, long time, is prevention
00:04:43a failure, well look, I've been talking about prevention for a long time
00:04:47and we will talk about it and we will this year, so we have already had two
00:04:51meetings this year, we talked about what everyone needs
00:04:54to do, how, but now we will push it even
00:04:57more because prevention is actually the key to success,
00:05:00this "more prevention, less operative" is the
00:05:04key to success, so everything is overgrown, everything is
00:05:06neglected, there are no roads, as we saw in the Omiš area
00:05:10when there was a fire, there are very few... roads, roads are narrow, so
00:05:14they need to be cleared, they need to be built, but not only that, they also need to be maintained, it's not
00:05:18enough to build a road if we won't maintain it and so
00:05:21on, so in that prevention, we can talk a lot
00:05:25and that's something that we all need to talk about, so about
00:05:28early detection, we have invested a lot in early detection, so fires,
00:05:32280 cameras monitor all that, there are people, there are
00:05:36patrols and so on, did it fail, we know that the
00:05:39notification system in Omiš failed, uh...
00:05:42We heard that, the SMS didn't arrive, well, I don't know if the SMS should have
00:05:46been sent or not, we can talk about that when it comes to
00:05:49such rapid events that spread at high speed,
00:05:53so that early warning system for early warning, the
00:05:57name itself implies, so while we have time, however, here when you have
00:05:59a uh lightning-fast spread of fire, so what
00:06:03would happen, so an example we had in the Rus Kamen hotel, when
00:06:07we locked people in the hotel, we didn't let them out, we actually saved a lot
00:06:11of lives. The same thing was done in the Milna area when we
00:06:14in the area of the Gava Gava hotel, also
00:06:18a large number of people were accommodated in the hotel, they were not allowed to go out until the fire passed, the fire
00:06:22passed very quickly, so that is a matter of the commander's decision on
00:06:25the ground. We will continue to discuss this prevention that
00:06:29you touched upon, so we can also talk about what that prevention means with
00:06:33these upcoming landslides and rain that you announced,
00:06:36so uh, very
00:06:39high fire danger index, dry plants.
00:06:42So, that's what is definitely known and what needs to be acted upon, so,
00:06:46to act now, because we have to act now for what will
00:06:49happen to us in four or five years, the danger index is very high,
00:06:53it has moved far to the north of Europe, so we have to talk
00:06:56about that and it will happen to us, dehydration of plants and that is no longer good,
00:07:00who should act there, excuse me for interrupting you, who should act there,
00:07:03I assume from local self-government units in whose
00:07:07jurisdiction it is, counties and the state, so all together, meaning not just one
00:07:11individual can solve it because there is a variety of ownership and forests
00:07:14and and and land and so on, you have private
00:07:18ownership, you have state ownership, that's the essence, so we get in
00:07:21such situations when there is
00:07:24a long drought, long waves, we get a completely different class
00:07:28of fire, it's no longer class A fire but
00:07:31B, so our essential oils are burning,
00:07:34Mr. Tucaković, Serbia was also not spared from large
00:07:38fires, Tinja continues somewhere, Deliblatska Peščara, somehow
00:07:41it will remain. Stolovi as well, but Deliblatska
00:07:45Peščara, one would say the most, uh, you have talked
00:07:48a lot about preventive action, from some
00:07:51four factors, isn't that right, which we
00:07:55should keep in mind to act accordingly on those
00:07:58causes, so how would you evaluate that prevention, which of course
00:08:02everyone talks about as the most important when it comes to
00:08:16often talk about four groups of factors that define, or
00:08:20influence the occurrence of fires themselves, where
00:08:23first of all, the greatest importance is given to anthropogenic
00:08:27factors, in fact, 95%, perhaps even a
00:08:30higher percentage of fires occur under the influence of
00:08:32man, so these factors
00:08:36must be taken into account when forecasting
00:08:40the risk of fire, mhm. The index that my colleague from
00:08:43Croatia mentioned, I assume he meant the fire weather index, that is
00:08:47one
00:08:50uh index that defines the probability, i.e., the state
00:08:54of combustible material and burning conditions,
00:08:58but it does not speak of the real
00:09:00danger because, as I said, someone needs to start
00:09:04that fire, so that very
00:09:08fire weather index, its values for Deliblatska
00:09:11Peščara were, for example. for example, on that August 5th,
00:09:14they were very extreme, i.e.,
00:09:18over 50, between 50 and 70, there is another higher
00:09:21threshold where those values are above 70, uh
00:09:26that somewhat explains why we had such
00:09:29uh such consequences and why it was so
00:09:32difficult to bring that same fire under control, which the
00:09:36members of the sector for emergency situations in 21
00:09:39and I assume colleagues from Vojvodina Šuma. "within
00:09:43a few hours brought under control, but this index was known,
00:09:46I assume, excuse me for interrupting you, this index that you mentioned was, I was
00:09:50there even before that fifth, no or not, uh, it
00:09:54was significantly lower, 21 was
00:09:57between 10 and 20, mhm, this is probably
00:10:01one of the reasons why they were able to so easily,
00:10:05i.e., in just a few hours bring that fire under
00:10:08control, that explains the difference between the 21st
00:10:12and the 5th. of July and
00:10:16August 5th. Uh, so, you said that
00:10:20one of the factors is of course climate change, you mentioned the amount of combustible
00:10:23material, human and terrain configuration. Now, climate change, we can't really
00:10:27influence too much at that moment
00:10:30or
00:10:32earlier, but we know roughly that summers are getting hotter, not colder,
00:10:36and that index you mentioned, if it was 20 something in July, uh,
00:10:40I assume that experts know that it will increase during
00:10:44August, logically, considering the weather
00:10:47conditions, which will certainly be unfavorable,
00:10:50they should know and they should use those publicly available
00:10:54information more, first of all, because our Republican
00:10:57Hydrometeorological Institute has been generating data on the fire weather
00:11:01index since 2008
00:11:0324 or 25 permanent hydrometeorological
00:11:06stations, also information on the fire weather index can
00:11:10be found on the portal of the European Forest Fire Information System
00:11:14and what is
00:11:17another advantage, this system provides a
00:11:20forecast for about eight to nine days in advance,
00:11:24so that...
00:11:34days in advance so that you can somehow prepare your resources,
00:11:37allocate personnel to those areas where the
00:11:41uh danger will certainly be higher, was that
00:11:45done adequately in your opinion? Well, I
00:11:48think that this information is not used adequately
00:11:52and that that's why we might have had
00:11:55this situation, not only now, but also in previous years, similar
00:11:59situations, when it comes to, and as for
00:12:02prevention, what remains for us
00:12:06is to try to manage combustible
00:12:09material for a longer period, that's the only thing we
00:12:13can influence,
00:12:16in a sense, we can also influence people, but let's remember
00:12:19the situation from before, from last year when we had
00:12:23over 600 fires in one day, meaning...
00:12:25there will be a certain number of people who, no matter how much we
00:12:29raise awareness about the importance of forests, the danger that threatens us from
00:12:32fires, simply to some people that
00:12:36information will not reach them or they will not process it, they will not
00:12:39accept it, they will behave as they behave, i.e.,
00:12:43they will set some 600 fires every day somewhere,
00:12:47but it will depend on the fire weather index, i.e., on the condition
00:12:50of the combustible material, to be more precise,
00:12:53whether those... 600 fires will become
00:12:57real fires that will then be a big challenge for
00:13:00uh the resources we have and which we can use to extinguish
00:13:04forest fires. In the continuation, we will see the story from Omiš
00:13:07unfortunately from Deliblatska Peščara, what you mentioned, that the information was not used
00:13:11adequately, do you expect uh some investigation,
00:13:25since a lot has really burned, it's not exactly that I think some
00:13:29lessons must be learned that in the future
00:13:33in the future we should use more information that is
00:13:36publicly available and that can be publicly available if some
00:13:40funds were invested uh to
00:13:43be able to produce that information that firefighters,
00:13:45i.e., our members of the sector for emergencies, could use very usefully
00:13:49in that
00:13:52way to save their lives and... and property
00:13:56and above all the environment, yes, we often
00:13:59forget that, you didn't answer me about this responsibility, this responsibility,
00:14:03do you expect, I know it's not your
00:14:05domain, but do you simply expect, as
00:14:09someone who deals with these issues, I don't mean to
00:14:12initiate, but I deal with fire research,
00:14:16I assume that there are responsible people in
00:14:20uh the Ministry of Internal Affairs who should conduct
00:14:23investigations related to... the occurrence of fires, but these things can,
00:14:27we'll see if that happens, when it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Kasalo,
00:14:30fires have not bypassed Bosnia and Herzegovina,
00:14:34Trebinje, Mostar, Livno near you, everything
00:14:38around was burning, so how would you evaluate,
00:14:41we saw problems with equipment,
00:14:43outdated uh, but also
00:14:47areas that were defended, how would you evaluate, here it is already
00:14:51here, hopefully the fire season is coming to an end for you too.
00:15:03fire season ahead of us, although we
00:15:07uh are not sufficiently equipped
00:15:09with equipment, which should be used by firefighters and fire brigades
00:15:13and civil protection services that act against
00:15:17fires, mm the vehicle fleet is, for example, older,
00:15:19the average age of the vehicle fleet is over 30 years,
00:15:23old, we don't have, how should I
00:15:26say, local self-governments are facing the fact that mostly
00:15:30only they finance,
00:15:32uh, firefighting, very few from higher
00:15:36levels of government.
00:15:38In the future, if it continues
00:15:41like this, it won't be good,
00:15:45we won't be able to act because all
00:15:47the seasons are demanding
00:15:49in the current moment there is a large
00:15:53one in the neighboring municipality
00:15:56of Posušje and I would like to take this
00:15:59opportunity to commend the great
00:16:02help of the Government of the Republic, often when the
00:16:06population is endangered, it sends facilities.
00:16:09Also ,
00:16:13a big role as legal
00:16:15entities,
00:16:18forest societies which
00:16:21manage forests should
00:16:24take much more action regarding
00:16:27fire roads, clearings and so on, so that
00:16:30mm it could be prevented
00:16:33in that
00:16:53Bosnia and Herzegovina, now that is compared to fires destroying
00:16:56an area equal to 105,000 football
00:16:59fields and that it will be even worse in the
00:17:03future, what is the problem with Bosnia and Herzegovina, as far as
00:17:06I understand, uh there are no specialized
00:17:10fire-fighting aircraft in Bosnia and Herzegovina that should
00:17:13uh exist, but they
00:17:16don't, so they say.
00:17:18Uh, mhm,
00:17:22you said two years ago Herceg-Bosna Canton,
00:17:25West Herzegovina and Herzegovina-Neretva
00:17:28Canton signed an agreement and
00:17:32rented e-tractors from the Republic of Croatia that proved to be
00:17:36of great help to us. These two seasons,
00:17:39only the airport brda in Livno is used
00:17:43for air tractor operations, where they are loaded when it comes
00:17:47to fires in Herceg-Bosna
00:17:49Canton, only a minimum of
00:17:5250 uh flights were from
00:17:55there, but of course the
00:17:58third level authorities should have already
00:18:02had them from your
00:18:04own
00:18:07yes. So either helicopters or what do you call them, maybe Canadairs
00:18:10or maybe for our area
00:18:13helicopters, because the ground
00:18:16forces themselves on inaccessible forest
00:18:20terrains uh can
00:18:23do very little, there are large altitudes in question,
00:18:27uh cliffs,
00:18:30ravines and so on where sometimes it is
00:18:33impossible to reach and operate in those areas,
00:18:37yes... What can be read is that
00:18:40Bosnia and Herzegovina actually has helicopters that can be engaged in firefighting, but
00:18:44it does not have its own specialized firefighting fleet,
00:18:48let's go back to Omiš where unfortunately there were
00:18:51human casualties, so a catastrophic fire hit the area of
00:18:54Omiš and surrounding places, Lokvar, Ogoznica,
00:18:58Mimice, Nemira, Staničići in mid-August
00:19:002026. Three people died, more than
00:19:0440 were injured, and over 2,000 people were evacuated. The Government
00:19:08of Croatia and the city of Zagreb offered help in remediating the consequences
00:19:11of the fire, but the question remains what we talked about, could it have been
00:19:15prevented and why did the early warning and
00:19:18crisis management system that cost 8.4 million
00:19:21euros fail? SMS messages were not received by the residents of Omiš,
00:19:24nor by numerous domestic or foreign
00:19:27tourists.
00:19:30In this fight with nature, everyone lost. As soon as
00:19:33night fell, hell descended upon Omiš. A strong
00:19:37wind with elements of a hurricane-force bora pushed the fire over
00:19:40the mountain, dry thousand hectares burned, the fire
00:19:44reached the cliffs of the city, people in panic abandoned
00:19:47their homes, left their cars on the highway, fleeing to
00:19:51the sea, there they served guests who told me they felt
00:19:55some smoke, I didn't go after that because
00:19:58the cook is constantly burning wood and we thought it was that, and at one
00:20:02moment I turned my head and saw a big flame, I grabbed a hose to
00:20:06go put it out, but... it started blowing, it lifted
00:20:09everything, I barely saved the car, at the last moment and killed
00:20:13him, come on he says, embers are
00:20:15flying in the yard, I then ran out, the house
00:20:19was left unlocked, I grabbed the spoon, look how
00:20:23I was crying, fire is burning on both sides, I'm driving
00:20:26the car, and behind the fire there were catastrophic
00:20:29and enormous material consequences, burned
00:20:33houses, cars, black and broken trees that are
00:20:37still smoking. Firefighters who fought the
00:20:40fiery element near Omiš all night say that when they arrived at this
00:20:44very specific and inaccessible terrain, the fire was already
00:20:48in a raging phase. on the ground, houses were already
00:20:51threatened, we had to fight for every house, every street,
00:20:55now when a fire burns 100 hectares in four
00:20:59hours, you know the power of that fire, the power of nature, the sports
00:21:02hall in Omiš was too small to accommodate all the evacuated
00:21:06local residents and foreign tourists, so many
00:21:09people were transported by organized
00:21:12transport to Split. The Prime Minister of Croatia
00:21:15was asked why citizens were not warned via
00:21:19the so-called system. Plenković's response was not
00:21:22direct, nor did he specify whether the possibility
00:21:25of sending such a message was considered, he only
00:21:28emphasized the speed with which the fire spread. Here
00:21:31the situation was obviously fast in terms of wind at night,
00:21:35if it had been day, Canadairs would have operated during the day. And that
00:21:38is unfortunately what was missing. I think they were
00:21:42really so superhumanly sacrificial that what
00:21:46was managed to be saved is a real miracle. The
00:21:50President of Croatia, Milanović, first stated that it was
00:21:53a terrible event, natural, then he
00:21:56wondered, maybe it was not only natural, we don't know
00:22:00and remained ambiguous. Nenad
00:22:03Nešić, N1,
00:22:04Belgrade.
00:22:09Well, Mr. Tucaković, we saw these truly distressing scenes, I think that
00:22:12truly, I don't know, you say that in 15 years you haven't seen
00:22:16anything like this, there were
00:22:18fires
00:22:20in 2017
00:22:23and 2012, I think some years are mentioned when a lot
00:22:26uh uh burned but
00:22:29not like this as you yourself said, uh you said that we should talk
00:22:32a little about this uh
00:22:36notification system where you said that maybe it wasn't even necessary,
00:22:39what exactly did you mean? Here we see that Prime Minister Plenković didn't
00:22:42comment excessively what is actually happening, is it good or
00:22:46not good? Well look, I uh...
00:22:50"I can responsibly claim that only firefighters, that is, the idiots commanded
00:22:54by my colleagues, so colleague Pešić spoke, and
00:22:57colleague county commander Kovačević, then I arrived
00:23:01an hour after the fire started and I was
00:23:04in the fire all night, I was even in
00:23:07mortal danger twice, I know very well what the firefighters
00:23:11were doing there, they were defending house by house, actually
00:23:14they were only defending and evacuating and doing everything they could
00:23:18so that no one would be hurt." "nothing, so here I really have to thank
00:23:22the police, civil protection who really immediately got involved
00:23:25and helped uh people, all tourists in this
00:23:28area, so I mentioned earlier whether to
00:23:32activate the early warning system, so here we are
00:23:35talking about a very uh lightning-fast fire, so
00:23:38a very fast one that developed very quickly, so a hurricane-force
00:23:42bora was blowing, so the fire was spreading, we had conditions
00:23:45favorable for fire, so it was dehydration
00:23:49of plants, so..." and everything else, so it was an inaccessible terrain,
00:23:52it was a terrain with narrow streets, so
00:23:56everything had to be done quickly and I can really say that the firefighters
00:23:59did their job heroically, really gave their all, as did these
00:24:03services that were there, so I can say that very
00:24:06quickly in the first moment over 200 people were accommodated and organized in
00:24:10the hall, then some people were transferred further to
00:24:13Split, so we saw foreigners too, yes, we saw in
00:24:17the report a very quick organization of the city and the county. and everything else that was
00:24:21there, the people who were there, but also the citizens themselves who
00:24:24self-organized, poured water around, so a large number
00:24:28of houses were saved, we must talk about that, so how many houses were
00:24:31saved, how many lives, did it perhaps happen that we allowed
00:24:35evacuation from Ruskamen hotel, so we
00:24:38left people in the hotel, don't go out
00:24:41with two vehicles we saved that hotel, so nobody was
00:24:45injured there, so we did the same thing in the area of
00:24:47Brač when the commander
00:24:50made the decision everyone to the hotel, close the hotel, I can say
00:24:53that this action was very well done, however,
00:24:57unfortunately what I can say is that there was a fatal
00:25:00accident, that is the worst thing that can happen to a person,
00:25:04to people, we saw all of that in the report, the dedication of firefighters in
00:25:08both cases in all others, we
00:25:11see that in footage across Croatia and of course Serbia
00:25:15and Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is absolutely not in question, what I asked you and
00:25:18what you insisted on a lot about that prevention, and you did not
00:25:22specifically answer my question about this notification system via
00:25:26SMS, as we receive a notification that there
00:25:29will be some, I said, so I already said in the first part of my
00:25:33answers, so when we talk about an early
00:25:35warning system, we are talking about an early warning system, it
00:25:39failed, no,
00:25:42don't say that, I don't agree, I don't agree with you,
00:25:46so we are talking about an early warning system, so
00:25:50it was about a fire that started with lightning speed and it was necessary to
00:25:53approach it, in that sense what would have happened if
00:25:57we had turned it on, if 500 people had left this hotel to the fire,
00:26:01mhm, what would have happened. the assessment was that it was not necessary at
00:26:04that moment, it was a big event that was already
00:26:08caused, which was on the ground in a very, very
00:26:12big heat, so it's like having an explosion, you understand,
00:26:16clearly, and in that sense, the assessment was that if an SMS had been sent, there would have been more
00:26:19panic and more victims, maybe more victims, that assessment was like that at
00:26:23that moment, now that prevention, you talked a lot about it
00:26:26and that's exactly what we said, more prevention,
00:26:29less, uh, more prevention. less, yes,
00:26:33now in this specific case, what should have been more prevention or
00:26:37what could have been, could it have been at all, what
00:26:40should have been done in specific cases, but we must generally talk about all areas
00:26:44of all local units and regional self-governments, so we are talking about
00:26:48building roads, road passability, we are talking
00:26:51about arranging forest roads, arranging forest areas, we
00:26:55have a wonderful example uh, so, uh,
00:26:59the area of the city of Skradin when we made a projection.
00:27:03"what would happen, what will happen, what is the fire risk
00:27:06if we don't arrange the areas and how much it is when we arrange the areas and the
00:27:10risk decreases, so we have everything in digital form and everything can
00:27:14be checked, so we, that was done where from the area of the city of
00:27:18Skradin, uh, and over
00:27:205,000 uh cubic meters
00:27:24of wood mass were removed, mhm, you know what it is, now we have roads,
00:27:28streets, so the national park was involved, Croatian forests
00:27:31uh..." the fire commander of the Šibenik-Knin
00:27:34county, so everyone was involved and it showed that
00:27:38it can be done, so it should continue like that, mhm, good, that is one of
00:27:41the forms of prevention, when it comes to Serbia, now we will soon watch
00:27:45a report from the Deliblato Sands, which we talked about the most,
00:27:48Mr. Milanović, just to clarify, does Serbia have
00:27:52this, I am now insisting on that SMS notification, we heard
00:27:55why this system was not activated at this moment, the assessment
00:27:59was such, uh, Serbia has notification when there are some
00:28:03disasters that are coming, weather disasters, whether they are
00:28:06thunderstorms or winds, do we also have such a system for
00:28:10warning for fires,
00:28:13well, I think it is a unique system that
00:28:17this only depends on the type of danger, just as
00:28:20they warn us about extreme weather conditions such as
00:28:24storms, they should also warn us if
00:28:27there is a great danger of fire in a certain
00:28:30territory. "It wasn't here, if I am well
00:28:34informed, well, to tell you the truth,
00:28:38I don't have such information whether such a system was activated,
00:28:42whether it should have been activated, considering that if you mean the Deliblato Sands, considering that
00:28:45the Sands were burning, now yes,
00:28:49but at some moments it already approached populated
00:28:53areas, we also saw that there were problems there, no, yes,
00:28:56several populated areas were threatened, but at that moment
00:29:00as far as I know, members of the directorate for emergency
00:29:03situations were there, so they directly carried out the evacuation,
00:29:07it seems to me, people from Šušara, I don't know for
00:29:09other places. Let's see how it really looked
00:29:13in the Deliblato Sands, the responsibility that
00:29:16Serbia as a state and society fell short on, and the consequences are suffered by both plant
00:29:19and animal life that will need decades to recover, as they say.
00:29:23The Deliblato Sands, known to the scientific or general public
00:29:27as an area highly susceptible to fires. Why then did the system
00:29:30of preventive early warning fail? The public, along with the demand for an investigation
00:29:34of responsibility, also asks who benefited from this
00:29:37and why, especially if only a few days after
00:29:40suspicions about the construction of wind farms on the burned Deliblato Sands were
00:29:44declared misinformation, lies, the Serbian Parliament quietly
00:29:48passed amendments to the law that allow exactly that, paving the way for
00:29:52similar changes in land use affected by some of the 60
00:29:55large fires this season,
00:29:59how the Deliblato Sands became a del... swamp.
00:30:02Those who tried to answer this
00:30:06question could go to prison for spreading
00:30:09panic,
00:30:10one should not
00:30:14use
00:30:17through political, through alleged political
00:30:19struggle
00:30:21untruths for someone to gain
00:30:25certain political
00:30:28points, that is simply not
00:30:30true, it is a lie... It is ultimately
00:30:34shameful, it is hypocritical. Who lied
00:30:37on August 7th when the same minister stated that
00:30:41Serbia did not need help.
00:30:44This was the fire on August
00:30:475th. Look.
00:30:50This was the fire on August
00:30:537th. He states that things are under
00:30:56control. You should have activated it already then.
Data courtesy of The GDELT Project (gdeltproject.org), from the Internet Archive TV News Archive. Film strip and transcript are GDELT's, rehosted here under their terms of use, which permit it with this citation.