Fire contained in Qala forest after Lebanese Army intervention
The fire was eventually brought under control in the afternoon.
The area, which is particularly difficult to access and has no roads to allow fire trucks to reach the source, required the Lebanese Army to dispatch a helicopter to fight the flames. The aircraft was refueled from an artificial basin set up specifically for this purpose, supplied with water by Civil Defense with support from the Union of Jurd el-Qayta Municipalities and local tankers.
Earlier, environmental activists had called on authorities to coordinate with army command to dispatch a military helicopter to contain the fire before it spread, given the high temperatures and mountain winds.
In order to bring the fire under control, a helicopter took off from Qlayaat Air Base, while an artificial water basin had already been installed. Civil Defense vehicles arrived in the area to supply the basin with water, in coordination with members of the first responders team from the Union of Jurd al-Qayta Municipalities.
According to information from our correspondent, the cause of the incident may be linked to gunfire, a frequent cause unfortunately in these remote mountain regions. This area is home to a large concentration of Zahrani cedars and Cilician fir trees.
On July 15, under the patronage of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, the Lebanese Environment Ministry launched a $3.5 million risk management initiative aimed at reducing the risk of forest fires in vulnerable areas.
In April, Greenpeace had already warned about fires recorded in Lebanon even before the start of summer, a period usually prone to wildfires, calling them "an alarming sign of the worsening effects of climate change in the region."
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