Extinguishing a forest fire near Sevastopol following Ukrainian drone attack. Photo Report

Fires reached 15 hectares, firefighters, forestry workers and volunteers worked at the scene

On the night of August 10, Sevastopol came under another massive Ukrainian drone attack. As debris from downed drones fell onto a tourist campsite located in the Inzhir Tract, a fire broke out.

The flames, which engulfed the tourist tent camps, posed a real threat to the lives of vacationers.

These events demonstrated how vulnerable coastal and mountainous areas are during aerial attacks and how crucial the prompt response, organization, and selfless efforts of local residents and volunteers were in saving lives and minimizing damage.

Fire in the Inzhir Tract

The fire began at around 4:00 a.m., when debris from downed enemy UAVs fell in the mountainous area.

Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev subsequently reported that the Ukrainian drone attack had been repelled.

“Our military, aviation, air defense, and mobile fire groups repelled the Ukrainian drone attack. Fifteen UAVs were shot down. Mostly over the sea and at a distance from the shore,” Razvozhayev wrote on his social media pages.

Nevertheless, debris from two downed UAVs fell on land near Inzhir Beach. The impact started a forest fire. Two separate fire sites developed.

Emergency services and forestry workers immediately began evacuating vacationers from the campsite: some people were taken uphill, while others were evacuated by boats from the beach.

Officially, no injuries were reported. But the first hours were filled with panic and fear: tents and tourist camps caught fire, some people were asleep when the flames engulfed the tent camp, and people managed to escape only by a miracle.

“The children were screaming and crying, many were very frightened,” eyewitnesses recalled.

Eyewitness Accounts

Several eyewitnesses agreed to describe what they experienced. A young woman who was vacationing with her family said, “We were sleeping in a tent at night. We woke up to the smell of smoke and shouting. We ran out in a panic, the children were crying, everything was filled with smoke.”

“No one was injured, but the tent burned down completely,” another young woman briefly described the situation.

Another vacationer explained, “Some people were shouting, others were trying to save their belongings, but the fire was spreading very quickly. Thanks to the forestry workers and the people with boats. Without them, things would have been worse.”

The owner of one of the seasonal camps described the material losses, “The tents, kitchen equipment, and everything that makes the place suitable for vacation burned down. This is a blow to our livelihood and to the people who come here to relax.”

The Terrain

By the morning of August 11, the fire had not been completely contained because at around 7:00 a.m., two more enemy drones fell in the tract.

According to the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the area affected by the fire reached 15 hectares. Professional firefighters, forestry workers, and dozens of volunteers, more than 120 people in total, were working at the scene.

The governor noted, “During the attack… two more enemy drones fell at the site. The fire resumed, and the area reached 15 hectares. Forces and equipment were concentrated at the scene under an elevated, Rank 3 response level.”

The terrain of the Inzhir Tract made the rescuers’ work especially difficult: cliffs, steep slopes, and the absence of access roads ruled out the use of heavy equipment.

“Fire engines physically cannot get to some places, so rescuers and forestry workers have to reach them on foot. They carry the water and equipment themselves,” representatives of the services stated.

Under these conditions, the only practical resources for fighting the fire were people and basic equipment, fire extinguishers, digging tools, and water canisters.

Role of Local Residents

When equipment is powerless, the human factor becomes decisive. Volunteers and local residents were the first to come to the rescue: an organized effort to gather volunteers made it possible to quickly direct people to the fire.

Volunteer coordinator and Legislative Assembly deputy Pavel Kharlamov emphasized, “The fire engulfed both the old and the new forest. Volunteers are helping to douse the burning areas and create firebreaks along the path of the advancing flames.”

In hard-to-reach areas, men on lightweight sports motorcycles delivered water directly to the fire sites. Volunteers worked under the supervision of Emergency Ministry rescuers. Their tasks included dousing the fire line, extinguishing smoldering areas, and creating firebreaks to prevent the ground cover from catching fire again.

Volunteer Aleksandr concluded, “Almost all the small fire sites around here have been extinguished, but there is still smoldering in some places, and people simply did not notice a lot of it. It could easily flare up again. We should vigilant.”

Volunteer Ivan added, “A lot has burned, a large area. When we left in the evening, there was almost no open flame left. The fires started flaring up again.”

Why Was Aviation Not Used?

The absence of helicopters from the firefighting operation raises questions. In mountainous, hard-to-reach terrain with limited access roads, aviation is traditionally considered an effective means of delivering water and equipment to fire sites. However, helicopter support was not used in this operation. Officially, wind and difficult weather conditions that complicated aerial operations were cited.

For many residents and volunteers, these explanations became grounds for criticism. They expected aviation to be actively deployed to protect people and the forest. The absence of helicopters made firefighting predominantly manual and significantly increased the workload on volunteers and emergency services.

Consequences

Fires have been recorded in the Inzhir Tract before, but the current incident proved particularly serious: tourist camps burned down, and part of the forest, including both mature and young trees, was destroyed.

Nataliya Milchakova, head of the Phytoresources Laboratory at the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, noted, “A forest has the ability to recover, but the process takes a great deal of time. It will take at least 10-15 years for the trees to reach maturity.”

She recommended that funds for restoration be allocated now, pine seedlings be prepared for autumn planting, and the age of the burned trees be assessed in order to properly plan the planting of new trees.

For many residents and activists, this tragic night became another confirmation of the danger posed by Ukrainian attacks and the need for unity and preparedness for emergencies.

The work at Inzhir became an example of cooperation between Emergency Ministry rescuers, forestry workers, firefighters, volunteers, and local residents. Coordinators gathered volunteers, provided instructions and equipment, and arranged transportation for people to the starting points.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency