Fire Sela na Krasu – South-west / Karst (Slovenia) DOCUMENTATION OF PAST FIRES Fire perimeter and ignition point on the fire fighting operative map Insert a large scale image of the area, aiding its easy localization. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenia)
Reference for both “fire location” images (left and first one below): Statistical office of the Republic of Slovenia: NUTS 3 Surveying and mapping authority of the Republic of Slovenia: State general map 1:250.000 Ministry of agriculture, forestry and food: map of land use Slovenia Forest Service: map of fire events
Ignition point
Fire perimeter
Identification N°: 573 (EFFIS database for Slovenia) Date: 29.07.2003 Area (ha): 1048.57 Cause: (natural; unknown; anthropogenic): unknown Type of fire: ground fire, that progressed in to crown fire Start fire time: 29.07.2003 at 12:55 (first time it crossed the ITA- SLO border, near the settlement Jamlje on the Kremenjak hill) Final propagation time: 09.08.2003 Ignition point Coordinates (WGS84), aspect, altitude, remarks on morphology: the fire spread from Italy (fire perimeter is shown in the second image on the right) position: north 45.820°, east 13.597° aspect: 223° (SW) altitude: 200 m a.s.l.
Location and Comments: Provide a brief description of the area (regional scale) where the event occurred and general information on local forests and vegetation types.
Forest types involved are different from ignition point conditions? Describe important details and specificities of the fire.
Municipality of Komen occupies an area of 103 km2 and has approximately 3700 residents. It is situated on a slightly inclined– based plateau, next to Slovenian-Italian border, and extends further to the flysch-based hills of Vipava valley. The centre of the municipality represents town of Komen, in which the municipal headquarters are situated. General Topography Municipality Miren-Kostanjevica is smaller than Komen, taking an area of 64 km2. It consists of 15 settlements, which are administratively organized in seven local communities with 4790 residents. Landscape of this municipality is diverse. A smaller part lies in the Vipava valley region with fertile agriculture land, as the rest is occupied by karst land.
Although the sea is close by, the climate has a specific, somehow mainland character. Bora is a typical karstic wind.
Voluntary fire-fighting squads Komen and Miren-Kostanjevica operate in municipality Komen and municipality Miren- Kostanjevica respectively. They are both classified as category III. squads.
Limestone, flysch and alluvial coatings are prevailing types of bedrock. Ground porosity is high and precipitation is drained away quickly. Three quarters of the land is dominated by rendzinas on hills and calcareous earths on a Karst plateau. Earths have a neutral pH-reaction and are low on fertility. Typical of Karst are earths with reddish subsurface horizons. On the other hand, brown calcareous earths are typical for flysch bedrock. Summers are hot, dry and long-lasting, while winter season is more humid and cold. Locally specific factors, as terrain, elevation and proximity to sea also influence the climate conditions. Climate is characterized as modified Mediterranean climate. Average yearly temperature is 11 °C, and 16 °C in the vegetative season. Area receives a 1400 mm of precipitation per year.
In addition to summer droughts, winter dry periods are also quite common. Since geological structure of land is prone to quick drainage and intensive winds with high temperatures in summer are typical, land is dry for the most of the year and so, very susceptible for wild-land fires.
In 2003, ACPDR1 declared a high level of fire danger, in the beginning only for the Karst area, and later on for the whole country. In areas near Komen, there has not been any significant precipitation from 18th of February onwards. Places around settlements Brestovica, Sela na Krasu and Kostanjevica received even some less precipitation.
The prevailing (forest) vegetation type that was damaged in the fire was coppice, which dominates Brestovica and Karst plateau area. It was followed by shrub lands with broadleaved species that grow in extremely hot and dry conditions on the sun exposed slope above Brestovica, and European black pine forests that had represented a protection belt on the edges of the Karst plateau.
1 Administration for civil protection and disaster relief
Zoom (View of the fire from the waterworks at Sela na Typical landscape (fire approaching Sela na Krasu- Krasu) photo Darko Muhič)
METEOROLOGICAL SCENARIO Description of the synoptic episode by means of synoptic maps, for example the ones available on: http://www.wetterzentrale.de/
Relevant fire weather information (main winds, wind changes, drought, dry storms, etc.)
Year 2003 in Slovenia was meteorologically very similar as throughout the Europe, extremely warm and dry. That exhibited in high frequency of fires in wild lands. In the winter-summer period, in March, there was 625 fires in Slovenia (67 ha of burnt area), in April 334 fires (30 ha). In the summer time, there were 229 fire events (1522 ha) and 345 fires in August (205 ha). The year 2003 was a record-setting one, with the sum of 6065 fires. Lots of those events occurred in natural environment, and quite some required the use of helicopter assistance. Altogether, fire started 2820 times. More than 3000 ha of area was burnt. In the following year of 2004, only 777 fires occurred in natural environment.
Year 2003 had a significant characteristic, which was a long-lasting drought. Dry period started as early as in March. The latter was the driest March in the last 50 years. Low level of precipitation continued in April and May. Drought gradually ended no earlier as in September. Too warm weather was also prevailing in the period from March till September. Above average temperatures occurred May, July and August. June was in that respect perhaps even the most extreme month so far.
Danger level (derived from the fire weather index value)
Danger level at the time of fire was “5-very high” (1-5 scale), based on M-68 index.
Synoptic maps Fire danger map Temperature (°C) – 29.07.2003 Fire danger map could not be recovered for an event that is so remote in time.
The value of fire danger index also could not be obtained, but could be derived from the historical station data.
Air pressure (hPa) – 29.07.3002
Weather parameters and weather indices hourly graphs: 1. Air temperature and relative humidity Temperature (° C) 2. Wind speed and direction 3. Fire weather indices Relative humidity
Wind speed (km/h)
Wind direction
Fire activity period
Daily weather data for the Bilje meteorological station (lon=13.6, lat=45.9, alt=55m) – 29.07.2003 At 7:00 hours At 14:00 hours At 21:00 hours Temperature (at 2 m) 25.2 °C 29.7 °C 24.4 °C Humidity 44 % 33 % 41 % Air pressure 1010 hPa 1011 hPa 1012 hPa Wind speed 3.4 m/s 5.4 m/s 0.7 m/s Wind direction E ESE NNE Soil humidity dry soil surface dry soil surface dry soil surface Avg. temp. 25.9 °C Max. temp. 30.8 °C Durat. of solar rad. 9.3 h Prec. at 7:00 for the 0 mm last 24 hour
Daily weather data for the Opatje selo meteorological station (lon=13.6, lat=45.9, alt=172) – 29.07.2003 Cumulative precipitation at 7:00 (last 24 hours) 0.0 mm
Daily weather data for the Sela na Krasu meteorological station (lon=13.6, lat=45.8, alt=270) – 29.07.2003 Cumulative precipitation at 7:00 (last 24 hours) 0.0 mm
Remarks: Bilje – main meteorological station (available data is measured by observers at 07., 14. and 21. hours (CET): temperature, humidity, cloudiness, wind velocity, atmospheric pressure; at 07. (CET): precipitation, thickness of snow cover and of newly fallen (fresh) snow; during all day: observation of 45 different atmospheric fenomena) Opatje selo – precipitation station (available data on the amount of precipitation, thickness of snow cover and some of the atmospheric phenomena) Sela na Krasu – precipitation station (see above)
Monthly weather data for the Bilje meteorological station – July 2003 Avg. temp. 24.2 °C Max. temp. 31.3 °C Cumulative precipitation 35.2 mm Durat. of solar rad. 316.2 h Avg. cloudiness 37 % Days with thunderstorms 7 Days with rain (more than 1 mm) 9
Monthly weather data for the Opatje selo meteorological station (lon=13.6, lat=45.9, alt=172) –July 2003 Cumulative precipitation at 7:00 (last 24 hours) 23.6 mm Days with thunderstorms 4 Days with rain (more than 1 mm) 7
Monthly weather data for the Sela na Krasu meteorological station (lon=13.6, lat=45.8, alt=270) – July 2003 Cumulative precipitation at 7:00 (last 24 hours) 41.8 mm Days with thunderstorms 0 Days with rain (more than 1 mm) 7
Yearly weather data for the Bilje meteorological station – 2003 Month Avg. Avg. Cum. Durat. Avg. Days with D. with temp. max. t. precip. of solar cloud. thundersto. rain (°C) (°C) (mm) rad. (h) (%) (>1mm) Jan. 2.6 8.1 70.3 110.6 51 2 8 Feb. 1.8 8.4 33.4 222.3 18 0 2 Mar. 8.0 15.7 1.2 227.0 36 0 1 Apr. 11.1 16.9 89.0 203.7 49 0 10 May 18.8 26 32.7 302.0 36 3 7 Jun. 24.5 31.9 35.5 305.0 35 13 13 Jul. 24.2 31.3 35.2 316.2 37 7 9 Aug. 25.7 33.7 91.4 327.6 28 10 8 Sep. 16.8 24.5 72.8 230.6 34 2 11 Oct. 11.0 15.8 161.1 140.3 58 4 12 Nov. 9.9 13.9 213.6 98.5 66 1 15 Dec. 4.9 9.7 150.1 97.5 60 0 8 Year 13.3 19.7 986.3 2581.3 42 42 104
Yearly weather data for the Opatje selo meteorological station (lon=13.6, lat=45.9, alt=172) – 2003 Month Cum. Days with D. with precip. thundersto. rain (mm) (>1mm) Jan. 83.8 0 7 Feb. 30.2 0 2 Mar. 0 0 0 Apr. 105.6 0 8 May 23.7 0 5 Jun. 17.7 3 6 Jul. 23.6 4 7 Aug. 70 6 7 Sep. 50.8 0 9 Oct. 131.6 1 12 Nov. 232.5 0 12 Dec. 150.5 0 7 Year 920 14 82
Yearly weather data for the Sela na Krasu meteorological station (lon=13.6, lat=45.8, alt=270) – 2003 Month Cum. Days with D. with precip. thundersto. rain (mm) (>1mm) Jan. 76.1 0 9 Feb. 50.2 0 2 Mar. 0.7 0 2 Apr. 128.5 0 8 May 19.7 0 3 Jun. 35.8 0 6 Jul. 41.8 0 7 Aug. 45.7 0 7 Sep. 56.5 0 9 Oct. 134.1 0 13 Nov. 176.9 0 14 Dec. 148.9 0 7 Year 914.9 0 87
FIRE BEHAVIOUR AND OPERATIONS Main fire propagation direction by intensity Main manoeuvres
At 10:41 on the 30th of July, members of the fire watch notified ReCO (regional information center) Postojna on the progress of fire across the border. Fire crossed the border near border crossing Klariči (municipality Komen).
At 10:44, VFFA (voluntary firefighting association/brigade) Komen and firefighting association of the Republic of Slovenia – Sežana were activated. Before these forces had arrived, the leader of a fire watch, according to speed of fire spread, requested for activation of a complete regional firefighting association Sežana via ReCO Postojna.
At 11:20, the commander of VFFA Kostanjevica na Krasu asked for help from all troops of Goriška region firefighting association, notified the major and the commander of the regional office of civil protection.
The first troops succeed in defending two important objects, the water supply facility and the border crossing.
At 12:43, the fire came dangerously close to the settlement Klariči. Due to intensive fire spread, a part of firefighters was assigned to protecting buildings and people. Despite the effort, the fire spread even further, especially after 13:00 due to temperatures of 37 °C and south winds. At that point fire presented a threat for villages: • Sela na Krasu; • Vojščica; • Kostanjevica na Krasu; • Korita, and; • Hudi Log. Short description of main manoeuvres in relation to fire bahaviour main phases. Due to fast spreading of fire fronts and small number of troops, firefighters had to be transferred to different positions many times. Their primary mission at that point was to defend private (and also public) property and not so much to reduce the extent of the fire front. Firefighters were also prepared to evacuate residents from the most endangered areas.
Contribution from local population was very good and successfully coordinated by firefighters.
At 14:35, command headquarters were moved from Klariči to Brestovica.
At 14:45, Drago Počkar and Štefan Majcen (deputy commander of the regional office of civil protection for Notranjska region) contacted Italian forces and reached an agreement on help in areal forces for the western part of fire area, near the border (hill Vršec and Gredina).
At 14:45, 150 professional and voluntary firefighters participated. At 15:00, an additional helicopter to the one of Slovenian army was activated. A few over- flights were made by the Italian airplane.
At 15:15, the fire has passed village Brestovica, where all buildings were defended.
Firefighting measures, taken by the Italian forces were successful, as fire in the West was calmed down. The troops remained in that area and proceeded with cleaning the fire site.
In the East, the fire was still quite active, but was spreading at a lower rate as previously. Due to steep slopes and impenetrable terrain, the leader of the intervention Drago Počkar decided to stop the active firefighting and arranged its forces on the forest road above the hillside of Reber and below fire site (Brestovica-Zgornja Brestovica road), to stop potential new spreads of fire. In the afternoon, the winds had changed course for app. 90° and a new fire front emerged. Forces had to be transferred.
After arrival of forces from Gorenjska region, five operational groups were formed.
The fire was surveyed by the main inspector for protection against natural and other disasters Bogo Zupančič. At 17:10, the leadership of an intervention agreed upon the following conclusions: According to the extent of fire, the area of fire was divided on 4 sectors in the municipality Miren-Kostanjevica; and on 1 sector, which covered fire in municipality Komen area. Such delineation was dictated by the structure of terrain, infrastructure from a traffic viewpoint, and specificity of a location of fire. The fire was spreading in the area of two municipalities and two regions. Ways of radio station functioning and channels of communicating were set. The headquarters decided to act with all available resources and defined the goal, to localize the fire till dark and to set up a fire watch during the night time. Night watch consisted of app. 170 volunteers that were adequately equipped. The fire watch had despite hard field conditions fought fire during entire night of 30.07.-31.07., and in places where it was possible, protected buildings and people. The commander of the firefighting association was put to activate firefighting troops from the central part of Slovenia. Until 7 am on 31.07.2003, at least 300 firefighters with adequate equipment and automobile-tankers responded. Due to possibility of ignition of unexploded ordnance from the 1. World war, the commander of the intervention forbade activities in unsafe areas. All operational groups were notified on danger of Karts caves. Between 20:00 and 21:00, the headquarters’ meeting was set up to define individual assignments and to elaborate a plan for 31st of July.
Thanks to great efforts, combined with various threats, firefighting troops, helicopter forces from Slovenian army and Italian airplane succeeded to localize fire at app. 20:00. The headquarters were transferred from Sela na Krasu to VFFA Kostanjevica na Krasu’s facilities at 20:30 on 30.07.2003. The leadership of headquarters evaluated the status quo and adopted a set of measures and guides for work of the troops on fire grounds at night time and for activities that were planned for the next day.
Night watch of app. 250 firefighters, if necessary, fought fire or was protecting settlements and individual buildings and helped locals, as many of them were anxious.
The fire spread into a pine tree plantation above the Zgornja Brestovica village. Forest floor was heavily loaded with pine needles and are with no undergrowth, thus the fire could not progressed from ground to crown fire. Thick layer of humus enabled the fire to spread also underground.
There were no forest roads/trails or cross sections in the wider area of the fire grounds.
Fire spread as a ground and underground fire. In sectors I-IV, there were some individual ignitions and the fire started to spread into inaccessible spots.
Between 06:00 and 07:00, the headquarters determined that adequate preparations were carried out. Fore coming forces were arranged according to fire status over sectors. A replacement of troops that were in the field at night took place at 08:00. Active firefighting began. Areal support proved to be very efficient. Approaching the afternoon, the temperatures started to rise, which enabled the fire to become even more intensive and to spread further.
At 12:30, press conference was organized, which was attended by many. At 16:10, gentle raining began, and that mitigated the situation a bit so the majority of forces were able to withdraw. Aerial survey of the fire grounds was carried out with the MO’s helicopter. The fire was extinguished, and only one smokestack could be noticed close to Vojščica.
At that point, the fire was localized and a great share of troops was dismissed.
Precipitation was insufficient to leave the area unattended, thus Fire watch was set up. Aerial surveys were performed in cooperation between VFFA Kostanjevica and aerial club Nova Gorica. The helicopter of the Ministry of internal affairs scanned the entire area with the thermal camera.
Fire watch during the night from 31.07. to 01.08. was organized by VFFAs Kostanjevica na Krasu, Komen, Col, Kanal, Dole, Avče, Cerkno, Srpenica, Grahovo, Rut, Ponikve, Godovič, Dol, Logatec, Kobarid, Medvedje Brdo, Rovte in Nova vas.
From 01.08. to 09.08., fire watch was organized by VFFAs Kostanjevica na Krasu, Komen, Kanal, Log, Kobarid, Verd, Šempeter pri Novi Gorici, Dornberk, Nova Gorica, Borovnica, Bevke, Stari trg and firefighting association of the Republic of Slovenia – Sežana. Fire has reoccurred several times. The biggest one was on 03.08. close to Vojščica. On the 8th of August the fire was completely extinguished, thus the commander of VFFA Kostanjevica na Krasu proclaimed the termination of firefighting activities. Fire watch was present in the area of Komen municipality till the 9th of August.
Damage and costs of intervention. Data are approximate since the Forestry Institute of Slovenia did not collect detailed data. The working hours of the firefighters are not included in the calculations
1. Damage in natural environment and infrastructure Cost in EUR1 Damage on forests (according to Slovenia Forest Service’s estimation) 417 292.61 Damage on electrical power supply grid 283 758.97 Damage on telecommunication grid 47 988.65 Total 749 040.23 2. Other damage costs Costs of water and other means of extinguishment 2 921.05 Costs of water (water supply service “Kraski vodovod” – 1500 m3) 1 251.88 Costs of salary reimbursement for fire-fighters2, costs of transportation, equipment repairs and running costs of fire- fighting vehicles 271 240.19 Costs of food for fire-fighters 10 432.32 Fuel costs for fire-fighting vehicles 2 086.46 Costs of helicopters (29 hours of running) 38 724.75 Costs of collaboration/involvement with other services that was not predicted/planned 11 892.84 Total 338 549.49 Total 1. + 2. 1 087 589.72 Remarks 1 Calculated with the exchange rate of 1EUR=239.640SIT (Slovenian tolars) Original estimation of costs was given in Slovenian tolars, as this was an official currency in Slovenia at that time 2 Employers of fire-fighters are compensated when their employees, that are also voluntary fire-fighters, are called on duty
Fire and post-fire images
Fire on the slopes (photo: Janez Zafran) After the fire was put down (photo: Janez Zafran)
Burnt forests – initial developmental stages (photo: Janez Fire just before it crossed the Sela na Krasu-Brestovica road Zafran) (photo: Janez Zafran)
Protection of buildings in Sela na Krasu (photo: Darko Fiery wind by Brestovica (photo: Darko Muhič) Muhič)
Fight with tongues of flame above Brestovica (photo: Helicopter landing pad at the edge of the fire (photo: Darko Darko Muhič) Muhič)
ECOLOGY AND ECONOMY OF THE EVENT PRE-EVENT MANAGEMENT IMPACTS AND ECONOMIC DAMAGES
- forest was predominantly coppice and shrub - Which of the wood and ecosystem services have been (prevailingly broadleaves) and human-established compromised? stand of the European black pine; - majority of land is privately owned. Wood that was damaged in fire was not of significant economic value, since majority come from coppice and first-stage black pine plantations on degraded karstic soils. Operative prevention protocols -
Among ecosystem services, water retention capacity of wooded In Karst forest management area (image below), app. 470 lands was most severely affected. The entire top organic layer km of fire protection intersections (line-shaped clearings was burnet (mineralized) and the rocky upper layer was exposed. within the forests) and 450 km of forest roads are being Burnt area surrounds a major catchment area of the Brestovica maintained in transport-suitable state to decrease fire spread water pumping station that represents an important water source potential and to enable easy access for firefighters and for the Slovenian Karst area. foresters.
- Which are the human consequences (casualties, etc.)?
There were no casualties or injured during the fire.
- Is it possible to evaluate the economic losses?
- Risk awareness Damage on forests was estimated at app. 0.4 mio EUR (by Slovenia Forest Service. Almost half (45.9%) of forests in Karst FMA is classified as very highly endangered by fires, one fifth (20.9%) as - Why the event is considered to be “extreme”? (if it is highly endangered, and the remaining one third (33.2%) as considered “extreme”) moderately endangered. This event is thought to be extreme, simply due to its size. It is Administration for civil protection and disaster relief supposed to be the biggest wildfire in Slovenia ever recorded by proclaimed the highest, 5th, level of fire danger for the Karst man in. area. In such cases, municipalities can set-up a fire watch and mobilise foresters to make patrols more frequently. POST-EVENT ADOPTED STRATEGIES LESSON LEARNT - Post-event (or planned) forest management (did Text: (Please report also any specific description element the event affected the management policy? Or will (meteorological, morphological, ecological, etc.), useful to it?) understand the issue)
Planned post-fire forest management comprised of: formal protocol on collaboration between firefighters preparation of forest stands for regeneration1 and foresters should be prepared and adopted, (438.90 ha, 1.92 of which was planned to be there was an obvious lack of cartographic materials, financed from the government budget) forest fire protection intersections and forest roads preparation of the soils2 (334.02 ha, 112.20 of classified as “applicable for fire protection use” can be …financed …) beneficial, as long as operational people (i.e. planting (39.15 ha, 4.80 of … financed …) firefighters and civil protection service) know they seeding (294.87 ha, 99.48 of … financed …) exist (importance of cartographic materials), a good part of fire prevention can be done in the winter - Economical management of the post-event time, when vegetation is dormant and “excessive” situation vegetation can be easily removed (i.e. shrubs, trees leaning over roads and house roofs). Restoration costs for forest lands for the government budget were estimated at EUR 83 458. The figure comprises of work costs and costs for planting and seeding materials.
- Secondary events occurred or monitored
Fire has reoccurred several times. The biggest one was on 03.08. close to Vojščica.
1 This measure commonly consists of removal of close-to-ground vegetation, as shrubs and small trees, in order to make conditions for regeneration more favourable – i.e. more light and space. All removed material must be piled up on few and predetermined spots. 2 For natural seed germination: removal of excessive herbal layer and tillage of soils in order for seeds to germinate more successfully. For planting: removal of excessive plant material like shrubs, small trees and herbs and suitable logging residual disposal on predetermined spots.
DRAFT – Chart of the impacts and the stakeholders towards the eco-systemic services
IMPACTS FUNCTION STAKEHOLDERS
Yes/No List Description Protection Description (Evaluation) (Consequences)
Yes/No List Description Naturalistic Description (Evaluation) (Consequences)
Yes/No List Description Description Landscape (Evaluation) (Consequences)
Yes/No List Description Recreational Description (Evaluation) (Consequences)
Yes/No List Description Description Productive (Evaluation) (Consequences)