{"id":60318,"date":"2025-07-24T18:19:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T16:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=60318"},"modified":"2025-07-30T21:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:23:42","slug":"the-audacity-of-three-croatian-cl-415-firefighting-planes-to-save-a-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/07\/24\/the-audacity-of-three-croatian-cl-415-firefighting-planes-to-save-a-church\/","title":{"rendered":"The audacity of three Croatian CL-415 firefighting planes to save a church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ka\u0161tel Su\u0107urac (Su\u0107urac Castle), with about 6,500 inhabitants, is a town of medieval origin located in southern Croatia.<\/p>\n

The Spanish firefighting aircraft of the 43rd Group seen in detail inside and out<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe serious accident of a CL-415 seaplane in Italy: the pilot and co-pilot have died<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

The town was originally intended as a defensive outpost against the Turks. For years, one of its main threats has been forest fires. On July 16, a fire broke out near the town<\/strong> due to negligence while burning brush. The fire consumed 30 hectares of pine trees and low vegetation<\/a> and also threatened the Catholic Church of St. George<\/strong>, the patron saint of Ka\u0161tel Su\u0107urac. This church dates back to the 9th century. On June 28, another forest fire had surrounded that same church<\/a>, burning 25 hectares of pine forest and low vegetation.<\/p>\n

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The fire broke out on June 28 near the medieval Church of St. George in Ka\u0161tel Su\u0107urac, southern Croatia (Photo: Hrvatska katoli\u010dka mre\u017ea<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Croatia is a deeply Catholic country<\/strong>. Saving St. George's Church in Ka\u0161tel Su\u0107urac was especially important to Croatian firefighters and the crews of the three Canadair CL-415 firefighting planes of the Croatian Air Force<\/strong> that participated in the extinguishing efforts. Flying in the area is not easy. The church is on a difficult-to-access mountain, and dropping water from the air in such an area is dangerous<\/strong>, but the pilots of these Croatian CL-415s demonstrated admirable courage and skill.<\/p>\n

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Canadair CL-415 866 dropping water near St. George's Church in Ka\u0161tel Su\u0107urac during the fire on July 16 (Photo: Hrvatska katoli\u010dka mre\u017ea<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Darko Mareti\u0107, commander of the Ka\u0161tela operational zone, stated<\/a>: \"The Canadairs saved us: they defended St. George's Church<\/strong>.\"<\/em> You can get an idea of how risky this firefighting mission was by watching this great video posted by EdoStuff Aviation<\/a> showing those three firefighting aircraft in action (811, 866 and 877), belonging to 855 Protupo\u017earna Eskadrila<\/strong> (855 Firefighting Squadron), based in Zadar, which operates six CL-415 amphibious aircraft:<\/p>\n