TUDJMAN: NOTHING MORE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE TO PREVENT FIRES

( Editorial: --> 2338 ) OREBIC, Aug 7 (Hina) - Damage to Croatian regions ravaged by fires during the past few days looks much worse in real life than on television, President Franjo Tudjman said on Friday after visiting the southern Peljesac peninsula where a state of emergency has been declared. Tudjman arrived this morning to the peninsula's south-western area, one of the worst fire hit parts of Croatia, to inspect first hand the consequences of the disastrous fires, which consumed more than 1,000 hectares of pine forest. He first visited Perna and then Kuciste, where he inspected burnt out homes and was informed of care for residents and guests. Then Tudjman visited Viganj and the Dalmatin family, whose daughter Elena was killed in the fire. The President also talked with residents, tourists and firefighters. "When a person arrives and sees on the scene what happened, then it looks even more frightening," he said following the tour. Tudjman added that Croatia was just as helpless in front of fires as any richer country with greater technical resources, such as the United States, Spain, Italy and Greece. "Unfortunately, even with all our precautions taken beforehand, we were unable to do more in this case, because the strong north- easterly winds prevented us from being more efficacious," he said. "But the most tragic of all is that the flames took away two lives." Tudjman told Croatian Radio fire fighting aircraft were unable to operate because of strong winds and following the great heat, this prevented the fire fighting operations from being more effective. The President announced the fire fighting aircraft fleet had been strengthened and promised that fire ravaged areas, as in other similar cases, would receive support from the Croatian Government and all of Croatia to enable reconstruction as soon as possible. Interior Minister Ivan Penic said superhuman efforts had been made into putting the disastrous fire under control. He said control would have been achieved much earlier if fire fighting aircraft could have been used during the whole time. "I have to say that our Canadair planes flew even when technically it was not allowed, and they were most effective this morning around 5 o'clock when the winds stopped," Penic said. (hina) mbr ha /rml 071549 MET aug 98