Wildfire on Brač turned the water into the escape route
A wildfire that started on 11 September 2026 has burned more than 4,000 hectares on Brač. In Milna, which has two harbours and an ACI marina, hundreds of people were taken out across the water.
Market NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH
A wildfire broke out on the Croatian island of Brač in the night of 11 September 2026, started by a lightning strike near Ložišće according to ADAC, the German automobile and touring club. Two nights later a strong bora pushed the flames southwest towards the inhabited bays. The figures for the burned area differ: ADAC reports more than 4,000 hectares, while SegelReporter puts it above 4,500 hectares, more than eleven percent of the island.
Milna was the focal point. The village has two harbours and an ACI marina with close to 300 berths between them. Around 400 guests of a holiday complex had to leave and part of the complex burned down, and around 700 people were brought out across the water under the coordination of the Croatian maritime rescue centre.
The rescue fleet was whatever floated: harbour master boats, coastguard, maritime police and mountain rescue craft, two tugs, two pilot boats, two excursion boats and a large number of private vessels. On land, ADAC counted hundreds of personnel, roughly 60 fire appliances and two water bombers. The fire was briefly declared under control and flared up again on the Monday afternoon.
Brač is not an isolated case. ADAC reports that wildfires in Croatia had burned close to 10,000 hectares during 2026 by that point, well above the previous year. For Adriatic cruising grounds that turns a land fire into an event which reaches harbours and berths directly.
What this means for owners
A fire that runs off the hillside into a harbour does not pick out one boat, it reaches a row of them at once, on the water, in the yard and on trailers. Charter yachts, sailing yachts on annual berths, motorboats and tenders are all in the same position. The useful preparation is documentary rather than nautical: photographs of the boat and a written inventory of its equipment, both made before the season, are worth more afterwards than anyone's memory. It also pays to know, in writing, which berth and which winter storage location your insurer has on file.
This paragraph is our view as an underwriting agency, not part of the news. What your own policy covers is written in your own terms; when in doubt, call us.
Where this comes from
The text above is our own. The sources listed supplied the facts and the figures, not the wording.