Romania sends 69 firefighters and Black Hawk helicopter to battle Serbian wildfires

Deployment to Deliblato Sands

Romania dispatched a specialized ground and aerial firefighting detachment to northern Serbia on Saturday morning to help contain wildfires across the Deliblato Sands Nature Reserve. The Romanian contingent comprises 69 personnel and 15 technical vehicles drawn from the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations and subordinate units, alongside a Sikorsky Black Hawk S-70M helicopter from the European rescEU strategic reserve. The aircraft is operated by the General Aviation Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and is engaged in its first international mission. Romania's National Committee for Emergency Situations approved the assistance free of charge at the proposal of the Department for Emergency Situations, answering an appeal coordinated by the European Commission's Emergency Response Coordination Centre.

This morning at 5 o'clock, the nine Bihor firefighters, two officers and seven non-commissioned officers, left with specialized vehicles for Timișoara, where they will reunite with the other intervention teams in Romania's terrestrial module.

Firefighting operations in rugged terrain

The joint mission focuses on containing blazes that have swept through more than 3,500 hectares of vegetation across Deliblato Sands, an environmentally sensitive and difficult-to-access reserve in northeastern Serbia. The ground contingent, which includes nine firefighters from the Crișana Emergency Situations Inspectorate of Bihor County, is scheduled for a 10-day operational tour working alongside Serbian emergency teams. Serbian interior ministry flight crews have conducted water drops in the area for 16 days using Super Puma and H145 helicopters, prioritizing defensive lines around the populated settlement of Šumarak. Flight crews reported navigating through thick smoke columns and immediate re-ignition of vegetation barriers, requiring repeated high-risk water drops over scattered hotspots.

Scope of wildfire activity across Serbia

The blaze in the Deliblato reserve is the largest of at least 45 vegetation fires registered across Serbia in recent days. Regional emergency services are simultaneously combating two other notable forest fires in the Mount Stolovi area. One fire in Mount Stolovi destroyed approximately 200 hectares of forest and low-lying vegetation, while a second fire farther south consumed roughly 60 hectares of woodland. The intense burning in northern Serbia generated extensive smoke that drifted across the international border, raising concerns among residents in western Romania after covering the area for two consecutive days.

Coordinated international emergency assistance

Serbia requested external assistance as regional firefighting resources faced heavy demands across southern Europe. Belgrade initially sought aerial support from Russia, which dispatched an Ilyushin Il-76P air tanker from its emergency situations ministry that landed in Niš on Wednesday evening and began dropping water over Deliblato Sands on Thursday. On Friday, Serbian authorities activated the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism through the Common Emergency Communication and Information System. Romania responded to the European Commission's coordination request by mobilizing both its specialized terrestrial module and the rescEU aerial asset to help bring the regional wildfire outbreaks under control.