The north of Morocco has been affected since Sunday by forest fires, favored by strong heat and wind. Several regions of the country have recorded temperatures of up to 49° C in recent days.
After Greece, Turkey, and Algeria, the north of Morocco is in turn affected by forest fires. Monday, August 16, firefighters were fighting for the third consecutive day against these fires, fueled by high heat and persistent winds.
The changing winds “do not help to control the fire,” said the regional director of the Department of Water and Forests in Chefchaouen, Rachid El-Anzi. 700 hectares of forests have already been decimated.
700 hectares of forest gone up in smoke in three days
Mobilization continues in northern Morocco to try to control the fires that have already decimated more than 700 hectares of forest in three days, the authorities said Agence France-Presse
“No casualties are to be deplored, priority having been given to preventing the spread of fire to inhabited areas,” he added.
More than 500 people, including firefighters and soldiers, “are still mobilized to put an end to these fires,” the head of the National Center for Forest Climate Risk Management, Fouad Assali, told the official MAP news agency. . The firefighters are supported by “four Canadair from the Royal Air Force and four Turbo trush planes from the Royal Gendarmerie”, he added.
Up to 49° C in some areas
The causes of these fires are not yet known, specified Rachid El-Anzi, estimating that the strong heat and the winds could constitute triggers.
Several regions of the kingdom have recorded temperatures of up to 49 ° C since Friday, according to the meteorology department. High temperatures accompanied by winds were expected until Monday in several regions of Morocco.
An “exceptional” heat wave between July 9 and 11 had already “favored the outbreak of twenty fires” in the kingdom, burning 1,200 hectares of forests, according to the Department of Water and Forests.
The Mediterranean basin has been affected in the past two weeks by fires, especially in Greece, Turkey, and Algeria. In the latter country, more than 90 people have died or gone missing since last Monday in the fires.
Algerian Civil Protection units were working on Monday to extinguish the last eight fires in seven wilayas [regions], most of them in Kabylia, the most affected region in northern Algeria. More than 41 fires have been extinguished in the past 24 hours, Civil Protection said.
In the eastern Mediterranean, however, new fires broke out near Jerusalem in wooded areas and homes in several villages were evacuated, Israel police said.
