Number of fires rises steeply in dry year 2018, 95 fatalities

Czech firefighters registered 20,663 fires in 2018, which is 3,906 more than in the preceding year, also due to last year's extreme drought, Fire Corps deputy head Frantisek Zadina said today, adding that the fires claimed 95 lives, compared with 92 in 2017. Last year, the persisting drought raised the number of fires flaring up in the wild nature. Nevertheless, the fires caused lower direct damage last year, over 2.6 billion crowns, than in 2017.