The fire that has been raging through Deliblato Sands for three days has spread to over 300 hectares, with strong winds carrying smoke to Belgrade and Pančevo, causing air pollution.
Residents of Belgrade and Pančevo are facing a thick cloud of smoke and an unbearable smell of burning spreading across the city. The cause is not a fire in the capital itself, but a blaze that has been raging for days in the Deliblato Sands, dozens of kilometers away. Strong winds have carried the smoke upstream along the Danube, creating apocalyptic scenes and causing alarm among citizens.
According to a report by Kurir.rs, Luka Čaušić, Assistant Minister and Head of the Emergency Situations Sector of the Ministry of Interior (MUP), stated on Thursday, August 6, 2026, that a new fire in the Deliblato Sands broke out around 2 p.m. Due to high temperatures and strong winds, the fire spread rapidly, covering an area of more than 300 hectares.
Significant resources have been deployed to extinguish the fire. "More than 80 members of the Emergency Situations Sector, voluntary firefighting societies, and 'Vojvodinašume' are currently involved in extinguishing the fire, while three helicopters of the Ministry of Interior-Kamov Ka32, H215 Super Puma, and H145-are engaged from the air. We also expect heavy machinery to arrive to create firebreaks in order to stop the further spread of the fire," Čaušić told Kurir.rs. Police Director Dragan Vasiljević also conducted a reconnaissance flight over the affected area.
Dramatic footage and comments from concerned citizens are spreading on social media. "Belgrade turned white" and "you can't breathe" are just some of the comments reported by Kurir.rs. The smell of smoke and burning is particularly intense in parts of the city such as the center, Šumice, Vračar, New Belgrade, Lion, Mirijevo, and Karaburma.
Citizen Zlatko Crnogorac shared a video on Twitter from his terrace in Dorćol, where he has lived for five decades. "I can smell burning and smoke through the open terrace doors! I go out? A video from my terrace below the Faculty of Mathematics on Toplana Dorćol. The zoomed-in haze is smoke that the wind carried upstream along the Danube from Deliblato and Dubovac. This has never happened in the 5 decades I've lived in Dorćol," Crnogorac wrote.
Similar scenes were recorded in New Belgrade, where Avala hill was barely visible through the thick smoke, as reported by N1 Serbia. Residents of Pančevo also reported an extremely strong smell of burning.
Portal N1 Serbia reports that data from the Beoeko website shortly after 8 p.m. on Friday, August 7, 2026, showed polluted air in Belgrade. Although the situation was later characterized as moderate, pollution was recorded at measuring stations across the city: Krnjača, Bulevar despota Stefana, Jajinci, Franše d'Epere, Lazarevac, Ada petlja, Ugrinovačka in Zemun, Sopot, Rakovica, and Danijelova. In other parts of the city, air quality was mostly moderate, and the international service IQ Air shows similar data.
N1 Serbia unofficially learns that there are no active fires in Belgrade itself, and that the smoke most likely comes from the Deliblato Sands, which has been burning for three days. The concern of citizens is also reflected in a question from Twitter user @_any703: "Is there a fire in Belgrade too, or is the wind bringing smoke from the fire in the Deliblato Sands or from who knows where... what's happening, does anyone know..."
