Syria battles forest fires for third day as Turkey sends help
An AFP correspondent saw strong winds fanning the flames in forest areas and farmland in Qastal Maaf, around a dozen kilometres (eight miles) from the Turkish border, as residents continued to flee with what they could carry.
Some residential areas in the region were evacuated a day earlier.
Syria's ministry for emergencies and disaster management said teams from Turkey began helping on Saturday morning 'as part of regional coordination to face the fires', with the assistance including two aircraft and eight fire trucks.
Turkey, a key supporter of Syria's new authorities, has been battling its own fires in recent days, including near the Syrian border.
The AFP correspondent saw helicopters bearing the Turkish flag flying over Qastal Maaf assisting firefighters on the ground.
Syria's civil defence said a volunteer firefighter suffered from smoke inhalation and a service vehicle caught fire.
More than 60 Syrian civil defence and other teams were fighting fires across several areas of Latakia province, the ministry said.
It cited 'very difficult conditions, with the explosion of war remnants and mines', strong winds and high temperatures, adding that mountainous terrain was hampering efforts to reach some blazes.
More than six months after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, Syria is still reeling from more than a decade of civil war that also left munitions and ordnance scattered across the country.
With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves, low rainfall and major forest fires.
In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation told AFP that Syria had 'not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malaysian Reserve
7 hours ago
- Malaysian Reserve
Eight dead, 31 missing in floods on China-Nepal border
KATHMANDU — Floods triggered by torrential rains tore down a Himalayan mountain valley between China and Nepal on Tuesday, with at least eight killed and 31 missing, officials and state media said. The wall of water also swept away one of the main bridges linking Nepal and China over the Bhotekoshi river. Deadly floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September but experts say climate change is making them worse. In Nepal, eight bodies have been recovered and 20 others — 14 Nepalis and six Chinese — are listed as missing, according to police. 'Our focus is on search and rescue efforts. We have rescued 57 people so far,' Nepal police spokesperson Binod Ghimire told AFP. China's state television CCTV reported that a 'mudslide disaster' hit the border area around dawn on Tuesday, with 11 people missing on the Chinese side. It said those were in addition to six Chinese construction workers swept away on the Nepal side. Increasingly intense floods and droughts are a 'distress signal' of what is to come as climate change makes the planet's water cycle ever more unpredictable, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said last year. And the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) warned in June that communities face heightened disaster risks this monsoon season. 'Rising temperatures and more extreme rain raise the risk of water-induced disasters such as floods, landslides, and debris flows,' ICIMOD said. — AFP
The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
Forest fire blazes in southern France
NARBONNE: A forest fire blazed in southern France Tuesday, after it crept across an area the size of 2,000 rugby pitches of trees, causing an autoroute to Spain to close temporarily and residents to evacuate their homes. The fire, the latest of several in the area in recent days, started on the property of a winery south of the city of Narbonne on Monday afternoon, then spread rapidly due to wind and parched vegetation after a heatwave. More than 1,000 firefighters battled the flames overnight, but by the morning the inferno had partially damaged 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) of land and was still going strong, local authorities said. Local official Christian Pouget said six homes had been partially affected. 'The fire has still not been brought under control,' he said. In the village of Prat-de-Cest on Tuesday morning, trees were blackened or still on fire. As she watched fire trucks drive to and fro, retiree Martine Bou, who did not give her age, recounted fleeing her home with her cats, tortoises and dog on Monday afternoon before returning. But her husband Frederic stayed all night to hose down the great pines on the other side of the road so the fire would not engulf their home. 'I've never seen anything like it. I have never lived next to such an enormous fire,' he told AFP, reporting flames dozens of metres (more than a hundred feet) high. French weather service Meteo France said the risk of fires remained high on Tuesday. Authorities closed the A9 autoroute to Spain, but on Tuesday morning they said they were progressively reopening the route to traffic. Meteo France said this weekend that a punishing heatwave that began on June 19 had officially ended on Friday, lasting in all 16 days -- the same length as the country's deadly 2003 heatwave. That same day, however, the first major fires of the season broke out in the south. Scientists say human-induced climate change is increasing the intensity, length and frequency of the extreme heat that causes some forest fires. – AFP
The Sun
11 hours ago
- The Sun
Thousands told to stay home as Spain forest fire rages on
MADRID: Spanish firefighters on Tuesday were battling a forest fire stoked by fierce winds that has burned more than 2,300 hectares (5,680 acres), with authorities urging thousands of residents to stay home. The Spanish army's emergency response unit said it had deployed overnight near the northeastern city of Tarragona to assist local authorities. The blaze has devoured 'around 2,377 hectares of land, mostly forest', countryside rangers in the Catalonia region wrote on X. The protected Els Ports natural park makes up 30 percent of the affected area, they added. Firefighters released video footage shot from a helicopter on Monday showing hills enveloped in a cloud of grey and orange smoke stretching into the distance. Winds of up to 90 kilometres per hour (56 miles per hour) made it harder to extinguish the fire overnight, firefighters said. The national civil protection authority urged residents in the area to close their doors and windows and stay home, saying that around 18,000 people were affected. Scientists say human-induced climate change is increasing the intensity, length and frequency of the extreme heat that causes some forest fires. Spain has in recent days sweltered through a heatwave that parched the land and heightened the risk of forest fires. National weather agency AEMET said last month was Spain's hottest June on record and that the frequency of extreme heat had tripled in the past 10 years. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), some 500 fires destroyed 300,000 hectares in Spain in 2022, a record for the continent. Around 21,000 hectares have burned so far this year. – AFP
