SARAJEVO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) — Wildfires that broke out in the mountainous area of southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH) Friday has spread to the Sutjeska National Park, igniting a century-old coniferous forest.
Helicopters and armed forces have been employed to extinguish the fire since Monday morning, said Zukan Helez, defense minister of BiH.
Around 150 hectares of forest and pastures in the Sutjeska National Park are currently on fire, Park Director Zoran Cancar told Radio Free Europe. The situation is difficult due to winds that prevent the fire from being contained, he added.
Sutjeska is the oldest and largest national park in BiH, known as the “pearl of the Balkans” and home to one of the last remaining primeval forests in Europe. It has an area of about 4,900 square kilometers, more than 66 percent of which is covered by forests, and the rest is grasslands and pastures.
On Monday, BiH issued high-temperature alerts throughout the country. Most regions in BiH have been placed under red alert for extreme heat, with the national meteorological service predicting temperatures to exceed 42 degrees Celsius this week.
Since the beginning of this summer, wildfires have broken out in many places due to high temperatures and dry weather. BiH, a mountainous country with abundant vegetation, loses thousands to tens of thousands of hectares of land to wildfires each year.
