Commemorative events in memory of 12 volunteer fire-fighters who died in a blaze on Kornat four years ago were held on that Adriatic island on Tuesday, with the families of the victims, the inhabitants of their home-towns, government ministers, MPs and other people attending.
After a requiem mass in St. Florian's chapel near the site of the tragedy, Defence Minister Davor Bozinovic said he hoped that the ongoing trial before the Zadar County Court against a former commander of fire-fighting units in Sibenik-Knin County, Drazen Slavica, would shed light on the causes of that tragedy.
The Defence Ministry is not conducting an investigation into the death of the 12 firefighters on Kornat, and the ministry and the armed forces are fully cooperating in the ongoing trial, Bozinovic said in response to reporters' questions about speculations on the army's role in an investigation into the causes of the Kornat tragedy four years ago.
Asked to comment on a theory that the firefighters had lost their lives due to a leftover NATO bomb, as indicated by the only surviving firefighter, Frane Lucic, the minister said that "there are no indications to corroborate such allegations".
The twelve firemen died while trying to put out a wildfire on the island of Kornat on 30 August 2007. Only one survived.
The trial of Slavica, indicted for omissions in organising the putting out of the Kornat wildfire, began at the Zadar County Court on 23 November 2010.
The families do not believe in the theory that the tragedy occurred due to eruptive fire behaviour, as suggested by an expert team engaged in the investigation.
