PRESIDENT MESIC VISITS FIRE-RAVAGED ISLAND OF HVAR

HVAR, Aug 18 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic on Monday visited fire-ravaged areas of the southern Adriatic island of Hvar where nearly 3,000 hectares of land have been consumed in recent blazes. #L# "This is a disaster for the island of Hvar, but also a warning to us all that we should not play with fires," Mesic told reporters. The president praised the firefighers for their efforts, saying they were doing their best despite the shortage of firefighting equipment. The Croatian Forests company and the owners of property affected by the fires should immediately cut down all the trees and prepare the ground for planting olive trees, and the state should get involved and offer olive seedlings at reasonable prices, Mesic said. Asked if special committees should be set up to coordinate firefighting efforts, Mesic said that such bodies would not be able to put out fires. "We should realise that we lack modern equipment," he said, adding that the firefighters had made maximum efforts to put the fires out. The president said that each big island should have at least one firefighting plane that would be available at all times. He noted that, when the second fire broke out on Hvar, a firefighting plane flew as far as Zadar for fuel, which took three hours. "We have all drawn a lesson from the disastrous fires this year, especially relevant institutions," Mesic said. Asked if the state would help the people of Hvar, he said that the state should do that, but that he believed that it was impossible to fully cover the damage. Responding to the question as to why Croatia had lent a firefighting plane to Monenengro at the time of the devastating fires in Croatia, Mesic said that Montenegro "is our neighbouring country and we had to help as much as we could to prevent the fire from spreading to our territory." Hvar mayor Zoran Domancic said that 25 tourists and all elderly residents had been evacuated from the bay of Dubovica. He complained that a Canadair plane joined the firefighters a day after it was requested, which he said was an evident sign of the shortage of such planes in the country. (hina) vm