The fire near Lokva Rogoznica and Omiš moved at a speed the local volunteer fire brigades have never seen. People ran towards the sea because the road was closed, and one figure describes that night better than anything: the harbour authority evacuated 194 people by sea. Thirty-six sought medical help, fourteen ended up in hospital, seven were fighting for their lives. A body was later found in the burnt area.

Through those hours, the mobile phones of people inside the zone stayed silent. The early warning and crisis management system did not send a single alert.

8.4 million euros for a message that never arrived

That system cost 8.4 million euros and went live in August 2023, with one single purpose - to tell citizens on their mobile phones, within seconds, that they are in danger. This is not its first test. It also stayed silent during the storms of July 2023, when four people died and the damage spread across fourteen counties. Paid for twice, silent twice.

The Civil Protection explanation is that the system is an informational tool and that activating it requires approval from the chief fire commander. The fire service says the evacuation began the moment the fire broke out and that all services were on the ground within minutes, since "the priority was immediate and rapid action on the ground". Prime Minister Andrej Plenković explained the night with wind and darkness: "Here the thing was obviously fast, in terms of the wind and the night."

All of those sentences can be true at once. And even so, one question remains that none of them touches: what is the point of a system whose activation depends on somebody, in the middle of the fastest night of the year, finding the time to sign an approval?

The suspicion that the fire was set

Goran Lović, who owns the premises near where the fire started, said the flames came from the opposite side of the road, where there were no tourists and no people at all. "We believe, in fact we are convinced this was set deliberately, meaning a human factor. The criminal police are here, we gave them the camera footage and did everything for this to be cleared up." One of the fire service commanders put it more briefly - that somebody decided early in the morning to play games with them.

If that is confirmed, the story has a perpetrator with a name, not just wind. Somebody lit a fire, in the hottest stretch of summer, above a town full of people. That is a choice, not a weather event.

Fires do not need a visa

Around 2,000 people spent the night in the reception centre in Omiš; local caterers prepared 1,300 meals. Slovenia sent assistance, Vukovar sent 10,000 euros. Solidarity, as always, worked faster than the system.

This region shares the same summer and the same wind. The difference is made by what happens in the first ten minutes - whether the phone rings or stays silent. The message from Omiš is not that the fire was strong. The message is that somebody paid for an alert to be sent, and no alert came.