Street in N Macedonia to be named after young Slovenian firefighter
Nova Gorica, 1 October - As news of a tragic death of a young Slovenian firefighter and diver reached North Macedonia, a country where he helped fight wildfires this summer, the mayor of Berovo decided to propose that a street in the town be named after him.
Ljubljana
Slovenian firefighters.
Photo: Administration for Civil Protection and Disater Relief/Twitter
According to Primorske Novice, the firefighter, Žan Kofol from Kostanjevica pri Ligu, who died in a traffic accident in Nova Gorica on Tuesday, was the youngest of the firefighters from the Primorska region to join efforts to put out the fires around Berovo in eastern North Macedonia in August.
Berovo Mayor Zvonko Pekevski announced on Facebook on Wednesday he would propose that the town name a street after him.
Kofol was one of the four volunteer firefighters from the Nova Gorica area who were fighting the fires in North Macedonia for six days in August.
"I find it very difficult to talk about this tragic loss because as a professional firefighter I was also at the scene of this fatal accident. He (Kofol) was the head of the youth commission at the Nova Gorica volunteer firefighters brigade and a very active firefighter," said deputy chief of the brigade Dani Boltar.
Kofol, who lost his life in a head-on-collision on Tuesday evening an hour before his 20th birthday, was also an active member of the Soča diving association since 2018.
"He was a very good lad and always prepared to help. Next year he could have become a member of the diving rescue unit," said Andrej Šekli, the head of the diving association.