On the 2nd of April, our team from the Hungarian co-coordination of the EU Strategy of the Danube Region Environmental Risks Priority Area (Kinga Perge and Martin Kiss), the Chairman of its Disaster Management Working Group (Zsolt Kelemen) and a representative of the Danube Youth Council (Sára Molnár) visited the new VACETRAS Firefighting Centre for Education and Technological Development in Vučevica, near Split in Croatia. The aim of the visit was to get an introduction to the training centre. Our delegation learned about the current functions and future plans of the training centre, also about projects being implemented by them, such as the FIRESPILL project. The roundtable discussion was followed by a tour of the centre, where the different training facilities, open and closed areas and equipment were introduced. Ante Ivanovic guided the visit, who highlighted that the base was carefully planned to be in Vučevica, near Split, in order to be in close proximity to wildfires in Croatia but also in the neighbouring counties. He also told that future plans are already being drawn up in order to expand the facility with new simulations, bolster the capacity and even to create landing opportunities for helicopters. Mr Ivanovic also pointed out that a parallel project is already ongoing as well aimed at constructing a tunnel towards Split in order to reduce the time of travel for the emergency units.

 

The VACETRAS Firefighting Training Facility

The Firefighter Facility is located in the Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The construction started in 2021 as part of the INTERREG FIRESPILL Project. The project itself is the biggest INTERREG Project in the region with a total budget of little under 20 million Euros. The base operates as a training facility for the Croatian firefighters. The training contains scenarios like orientation exercises in smoke, civilian rescue from building fires and special fire scenarios like airplane engine fire extinguishing and train wagon fires. The facility is capable of housing approximately 60 firefighters at the moment, but future plans are already being drawn up in order to bolster this number up to with a construction of a hostel building with 200 beds.

VACETRAS goes beyond traditional methods of training by offering tailored training and support courses. These courses address the specific needs and capabilities of participants with a follow up process to aid learning. Qualified trainers from VACETRAS and its network are chosen based on participants’ needs. Up on completion, participants gain specific qualifications for managing forest fires.

More information about the Facility: https://vacetras.hr/