Discarded cigarette butt ignited inferno in Kornati National Park, investigators say
The Toronto Star
ZAGREB, Croatia — The most devastating forest fires in Croatia’s history claimed the life of a ninth firefighter yesterday.
Josip Lucic, who was critically injured last Thursday while battling wildfires on the island of Kornat, part of the Kornati National Park, died in hospital, officials say.
Six firefighters, including three teenagers, died at the fire site on the island in the central Adriatic Sea.
They were killed when they were caught surrounded by fierce flames after a change of wind direction at the national park.
Three others died in hospital.
Four surviving firefighters, who are being treated in hospitals in Zagreb and Split, remained in critical condition.
As many as 23 firefighters from Sibenik and nearby towns had been called in to fight Kornat’s wildfires.
A continuing investigation has ruled the cause of the fire was a burning cigarette butt discarded in the park.
Police have so far pressed charges against about 30 people suspected of starting the fires; eight have been detained, according to the interior ministry.
Croatia mourned the tragedy Monday at a commemoration ceremony marking the incident.
“Today is the saddest day in Croatia in the past few years. This horrible tragedy has hurt everyone,” Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said.
Since June, some 900 fires, mainly along Croatia’s Adriatic coastline, have devastated around 13,000 hectares of land, according to authorities.
The fires were mainly the result of a heat wave that had made forests extremely dry.
Forest fires have also been devastating in Greece, where a 66th person died yesterday.
The recent spate of fires there, the third this summer following a series of heat waves, destroyed over 200,000 hectares of forest and other land.
The government has blamed arson for at least some of the fires.
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