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Croatia - Fire Service Flags

Overview

See also:

Overview

'Saint Florian and a similar motto feature on the fire service flags used in many of the countries of western and central Europe: Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia - as well as the German-speaking part of the Italian Tirol.
You'll understand that these are all ceremonial standards, and not flags for day-to-day use.
Ian Sumner, 13 September 2007

For Croatia, situation is quite similar, and a good reference is a booklet from the exhibition of these flags held in Varaždin during the International Firefighters Olympiad in 2005 by Biserka Vlahovi? [vlh05].
In general most of these flags are red (although other versions also exist), bearing on one side some local attributes (coat of arms if existing, but for smaller places there were no coat of arms at the time) while depiction of St. Florian on the other. The inscription is often Vatru gasi, brata spasi (Extinguish the fire, save the brother) and few other versions of similar significance.
Also, for many places there is three or even four flags that were used through history:
- pre-1941 flags
- flags of 1941-1945 period (during the Independent state, although apparently these rarely have any political symbols), this is also period when many small places introduce volunteer fire brigades (not quite unconnected with the fact that activity in such service might have been a reason to avoid drafting into military)
- 1945-1990 period (during which flags, of course, do not feature any religious motives, even though the political motives are again rarely included)
- post-1990 period (when new flags were introduced, now often reverting to St. Florian motive)

Ms. Biserka Vlahovic is researching these flags in Croatia, working on their preservation and restauration. Considering the number of these volunteer brigades that are established in almost every village and city, there would be hundreds of them altogether in Croatia, each being a master piece of local craftsmanship and a valuable heritage.

These are all ceremonial standards also in Croatia. Since mid-1990's at least the professional fire
brigades (and maybe also some of volunteer services) fly the service flag on their buildings - this in Zagreb they use dark blue flag with the service badge in the middle. The badge can be seen at <www.vatrogasci-zagreb.hr>.
Željko Heimer, 13 September 2007

Croatian Firefighter's Ceremonial Flag can be seen at <www.vatropromet.hr>. Flag of the firefighter society of Zaton can be seen at <www.dvd-zaton.hr>.
Milan Jovanovic, 27 September 2007