A settlement is expected to be reached "within a week or two" in a case involving Croatia and the lone survivor of the 2007 Kornat disaster in which 12 firefighters had been killed putting out a wildfire, Croatia's Justice Minister, Drazen Bosnjakovic, told reporters on Thursday.

Frane Lucic, a firefighter from the central Dalmatian town of Tisno, is the single survivor of the infamous incident when a routine operation to put out a wildfire that had erupted on the uninhabited island of Kornat went wrong.

Out of the thirteen firefighters who had been airlifted by a helicopter to the scene of the fire in August 2007, six were killed soon after touching ground, and another six were severely burned and later died in hospital. The incident became the largest peacetime disaster in modern Croatia.

Despite lengthy investigations, legal wrangling and several trials, the circumstances of the tragedy were never made entirely clear, with many doubting the official report that the loss of life was caused by a sudden eruptive burst of fire.

Former local county fire commander Drazen Slavica was the only person put on trial for negligence leading to the disaster, and was acquitted in the first trial in 2013. The Supreme Court later quashed the verdict and ordered a re-trial, but Slavica was again acquitted in late April 2018.

In a separate case, Lucic, who was 23 at the time of the incident, had filed a lawsuit against the city of Sibenik and Croatia, seeking damages for the massive third-degree burns and injuries he sustained in the event.

Earlier this month, the court finally handed him victory, and ordered the city and the government to pay Lucic some 1.75 million kuna (€236,500) in damages, to cover his previous and future disability-related costs, and compensate him for lost income.

However, the latest court ruling has been appealed by the Zagreb state prosecutor, on grounds of procedural errors. The appeal then prompted a protest of some two dozen local firefighters in Lucic’s hometown of Tisno last week, who demanded that the government drops the appeal and agrees to compensate Lucic.

The State Prosecutor’s Office (DORH) will try to reach an equitable settlement with firefighter Frano Lucic,

In the wake of the protest, the government said on Wednesday it would seek a settlement with Lucic, after a meeting held by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Justice Minister Bosnjakovic, and chief state prosecutor, Drazen Jelinic.

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