A major fire raged between the 21 and 27 August 2019 in the area of Cerje and caused damage to an area of approximately 100 hectares. The shared response from the Slovenian and Italian side and the collaboration from the civil defense units proved themselves, once again, as very important. Then, as many times before, a question emerged as how to speed up the processes and cross the border as quickly as possible, not only in cases of fires but also in cases of other natural disasters that inflict the common territory.
There have already been three agreements in force between Slovenia and Italy that enable the collaboration between the specific units and a fast bilateral border crossing: the first between the Fire Department of Koper and the Fire Department of Trieste, the second between Fire Department of Nova Gorica and the Fire Department of Gorizia and the third between the Republic of Slovenia and the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Due to big differences between the systems of both Slovenia and Italy, the civil defense units come across some limitations in cases of actual requests for help. The above mentioned agreements do in fact enable a better collaboration and a faster border-crossing especially to firefighters, but they don't include other civil defense units, that are also a big part when it comes to interventions in cases of fire. In this specific case of the wildfire at Cerje the firefighters were assigned to help, but on the Italian side of the border this task is covered by other units, that could help only after Slovenia officially requested international help from Italy, respectively from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. Such request was issued on the first day of the fire, on the 21. 8. 2019. The collaboration of all units were, as said by Tarcisio Drosghig, the lead coordinator of Corpo forestale della Regione autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, very successful. Simon Vendramin, the commander of the fire department of Nova Gorica and the leader on the Slovenian side of the operation, agreed. The fire department of Nova Gorica, one of the partners on the Crossit safer project, whose task is the settlement of a trans-border protocol, was assigned to prepare an analysis, that will be the base for the preparation and settlement of a new agreement. This new agreement is, as opposed to the first three ones, designed to cover the whole trans-border area and all the civil defense units alongside the Slovenian-Italian border.
Operation co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund
