On Sunday night, firefighters in Algeria were able to control most of the fires that broke out on Friday in the Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia regions in the Kabylie region (northeast).
Dozens of residents were evacuated as the fire approached their areas in Tizi Ouzou province, according to what the Director General of Forests, Jamal Touahria, told the Algerian news website Ennahar Online.
According to a preliminary report from the Tizi Ouzou Forestry Service, the fires have destroyed hundreds of hectares of vegetation. “The flames reached Ait Ferrah on Saturday,” said resident Farid Freih. “The villagers have started to quickly clear the brush to prevent the fire from spreading to other villages.” Dozens of villagers supported the fire brigades for several hours.
Since Friday, Tizi Ouzou has witnessed several fires, which have been brought under control or are about to be, according to civil protection official Nassim Bernaoui, who said in Ait Ferrah, about 25 km from Tizi Ouzou, that “the situation is under control,” but he pointed out that fires are still burning in areas “difficult to reach.”
More than 800 firefighters, 187 intervention vehicles, and 7 aircraft were mobilized to combat the fires that destroyed olive groves and agricultural areas, and swept through poultry and bee farms and some homes, according to what was reported by the French agency.
In Bejaia, authorities ordered the evacuation of about 20 families from the village of Mezouara, located near the Akfadou forest, where the fire broke out on Sunday. According to video footage circulated on social media, a water bomber dropped several loads over the forest.
Every summer, Algeria witnesses forest fires, a phenomenon that is getting worse every year, due to climate change, which causes drought and heat waves that make the vegetation more fragile.
At the end of July 2023, fires swept through the northeastern regions of the country, especially in the state of Bejaia, where at least 34 people died, and the fires destroyed thousands of hectares of forest and agricultural land and hundreds of homes. In August 2022, 37 people died in the vicinity of El Tarf in major fires that swept through the region.
In the summer of 2021, the country recorded the highest death toll from fires in decades, with more than 90 people killed in forest fires that swept through the north of the country.
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2024-08-15 02:59:05