For two days, more than 1,700 firefighters fought to put out more than 20 wildfires, mainly in the north-east of the country.
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Posted on 8/19/2022 12:54 PM Updated on 8/19/2022 1:31 PM
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Relief in Algeria. The fires that ravaged forested and urban areas in the north-east of the country on Wednesday and Thursday “are completely under control,” a civil defense official told AFP on Friday, August 19. These fires killed almost 40 people.
In the El Tarf area in the far east of the country, 30 people died, including 11 children and six women. Five other deaths were recorded in Souk Ahras and two in Sétif. Multiple media outlets have reported a 38th victim, a 72-year-old man, who died in Guelma.
For 48 hours, more than 1,700 firefighters fought to extinguish more than 20 forest fires, in which around 200 people were injured and some seriously burned. The Justice Department has launched an investigation to determine whether some of the fires were arson.
The prosecutor’s office in Souk Ahras, where an entire family died in the blaze, announced the arrest of an arsonist. Three men were also arrested by the gendarmerie near El Tarf. They are accused of setting fire to a neighbor’s crops without the authorities first establishing the link to the fires in the area.
Almost 150 fires have been recorded in Algeria since the beginning of August, destroying hundreds of hectares of forest and undergrowth. The north of the country is ravaged by forest fires every summer, but this phenomenon is intensifying every year under the influence of climate change, which leads to droughts and heat waves.