Kalinić: Where is Civil Protection?
Security expert Pavle Kalinić sharply criticized the system after catastrophic fires in Dalmatia, while Defense Minister Ivan Anušić confirmed the fires were deliberately set.
Security expert Pavle Kalinić sharply criticized the system after catastrophic fires in Dalmatia, while Defense Minister Ivan Anušić confirmed the fires were deliberately set.
After fires ravaged Croatia in recent days, claiming one life and destroying dozens of homes, security expert Pavle Kalinić directed sharp criticism at the authorities. In a post on his Facebook profile, he questions where Civil Protection is, which the state, according to him, invested tens of millions of euros in, and why patrols are not organized to prevent arson.
According to the latest data published by Narod.hr, in the area of Lokva Rogoznica and Omiš, 106 cars, 28 homes, and seven commercial, three catering, and six auxiliary buildings belonging to family houses were completely destroyed. The extent of damage to agricultural land is currently unknown.
Defense Minister Ivan Anušić stated that cameras recorded that the fires were set. "The number of fires breaking out in a single day, exactly when bura or strong winds are forecast, is illogical. It is also illogical and incredible that fires broke out, which were ultimately recorded by cameras as being deliberately set," Anušić said for Narod.hr.
Four people have been arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting a fire in the Benkovac area. Alongside firefighters, the Croatian Army joined the fight against the fire.
Kalinić believes that those who set fires are "training" firefighting forces and that patrols should be organized for this purpose. In his post, he noted that Civil Protection is absent from the whole story.
"Those who set fires are training firefighting forces well: today they are here, tomorrow there, the day after somewhere else, and so on, mostly where there hasn't been a fire yet. The police and Civil Protection should be on patrol to try to prevent arson. Let them see which areas haven't had fires and set up patrols there. Unless everything was already set up before the season, and now they remotely activate one position after another. And again the Croatian Army is engaged! And again there is no Civil Protection. Where is Civil Protection during floods? Where is it during fires? Where has the Civil Protection, in which the state invested tens of millions of euros, hidden? Buried under tons of garbage scattered across Croatia," Kalinić wrote on Facebook.
Kalinić also warned that the police and Civil Protection should be on patrol to try to prevent arson, suggesting that patrols should be placed in areas where fires have not yet occurred.
