This summer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, fires consumed everything in front of them – from Herzegovina to Krajina. They left behind 40 thousand hectares of burnt area. This large figure placed Bosnia and Herzegovina in first place in the region in terms of area destroyed by fire. Incinerators and destroyed ecosystems have consequences that will add up perhaps already after the first heavy rain. What is worrying is the fact that behind the flames are not always only high temperatures and drought. Most fires are caused by human negligence or intent.
The human factor behind the fire
From the south to the north of the country – Bosnia and Herzegovina was on fire this year. Blackness, ash and bare earth replaced the forest, grass and vegetation. Forty thousand hectares of land were consumed by more than 200 fires that ravaged our country. These are data from the European System for Information on Forest Fires.
Picturesque, 40 thousand hectares roughly corresponds to the area of more than 57 thousand football fields. What is worrying is the common denominator of fires from Herzegovina to Krajina – the human factor.
“Whether it’s about some sporadic cases and the fact that those with certain health problems do what they do,” said Pero Ćiro Pavlović, spokesman for the Civil Protection Headquarters of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton.
“Of these, two are criminal offenses – causing general danger, while the others are qualified as misdemeanors according to city or municipal decisions, where the perpetrators are sanctioned as misdemeanors,” said Azra Malkić, senior inspector in the Una-Sana Canton Police Department.
And data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Una-Sana Canton show that responsibility for fires is not only a matter of fines. In the past five years, 260 fires were recorded, of which 28 were on forest areas. The Prosecutor’s Office of the Una-Sana Canton filed 12 indictments for the criminal offense of causing general danger caused by the execution of generally dangerous actions, more precisely open fires.
Penalties exist, but do they deter?
“The court sentenced the defendants in two proceedings to prison, while in the other proceedings a suspended sentence was imposed,” said Aldijana Poprženović Kurtagić, spokeswoman for the Una-Sana Canton Prosecutor’s Office.
Although fines are prescribed, their effect in practice is negligible, as shown by numerous fire incidents.
“For natural persons who cause a fire, the amount of the misdemeanor fine is from 500 to 2,000 KM. According to the basic decision, it was 100 KM, so we went as far as possible to increase it as much as possible at the given moment”, explained Elvis Pašić, assistant chief for inspection affairs of the Municipality of Sanski Most.
“The competent service for inspection tasks fines natural persons who do not follow fire protection measures in the amount of 50 to 100 KM, and legal entities from 500 to 7,000, that is, the responsible person in a legal entity from 100 to 1,000 KM”, said Mirsad Šehić, assistant to the mayor of Bihac for civil protection.
Environmental damage is not measured in money
However, the actual damage caused by fire is not measured in money. The ecological damage is incalculable: less clean air, less clean water, more suitable soil for torrents. A centimeter of humus that takes a thousand years to form burns up in a few minutes.
“The long-term consequences can be great. Usually, when we talk about the damage we have from these fires, we talk about some wood mass, but we never say how much oxygen that green area produced, how much that green area conserved water, filtered that water,” pointed out prof. Dr. Dalibor Ballian, professor at the Faculty of Forestry in Sarajevo.
The first consequences after the rains
And we could feel the first consequences of the devastated nature after the first heavy rains. After the fire, the risk of erosion and soil washing increases because the land is left without part of the protective vegetation cover. Negligence, the lack of firefighters, modern equipment and the absence of adequate sanctions are the consequences that will be paid for years, and were created in just one fire season.
