AP News, August 31st, 2007
The prime minister promised an investigation Friday into Croatia's worst firefighting disaster, in which six men were killed and seven badly injured when they were trapped battling a fierce forest blaze.
The group _ including volunteers aged 17 and 18 _ was encircled by flames Thursday when the wind suddenly changed direction while they were fighting a fire on Kornat island, national firefighting chief Mladen Jurin said.
Police said eight men had been detained on suspicion of arson. The state-run news agency HINA said the eight were seasonal construction and tourism workers. They were allegedly filmed setting the fire by a German tourist.
The fire was brought under control early Friday.
The victims had been among 23 firefighters initially sent to fight the Kornat blaze. The 13 went to confront flames threatening homes on the island but were trapped when the fire changed course and surrounded them.
Women and children were jumping into the sea as the fire approached their homes, firefighter Nikola Kurkut told the Croatian daily newspaper Vecernji List.
Five of the seven wounded had life-threatening injuries, with burns covering 85 percent to 90 percent of their bodies, and they were transferred overnight to two clinics in Zagreb, doctors said.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader visited the injured in the coastal city of Zadar, saying it was the "biggest tragedy in Croatian firefighting."
"The government insists on a thorough investigation," he said. If it was arson, the government wants the "perpetrators to be identified and harshly punished," he said.
President Stipe Mesic demanded an inquiry into the actions of firefighting commanders, saying they "should have left a way for their retreat."
Jurin defended his colleagues and said the incident was part of "the risks of our job."
The government set Monday as a national day of mourning.
The county governor said the dead included a 17-year-old and two 18-year-old volunteer firefighters. The others were professional firefighters. The injured also included both volunteers and professionals.
Kornat is the biggest island in the archipelago of Kornati, off central Croatia in the Adriatic Sea. Dozens of small islands, mostly uninhabited and surrounded by clear blue water, are popular with tourists.
Croatia has battled a record 1,500 fires this summer, mostly in forests. The only other casualty this year was a firefighter who died Wednesday after falling ill while putting out fires on another island.
