Flames have engulfed several regions of Algeria and the results are startling: 34 people have died since Sunday.
The country faced heat waves and strong winds, with almost a hundred fires reported, requiring the evacuation of more than 1,500 people.
Neighboring Tunisia, already devastated by fires last week, is also battling the blaze.
Flames have engulfed several regions of Algeria and the results are startling: 34 people have died since Sunday.
The country faced heat waves and strong winds, with almost a hundred fires reported, requiring the evacuation of more than 1,500 people.
Neighboring Tunisia, already devastated by fires last week, is also battling the blaze.
The sky disappeared, the air became unbreathable, and everything was covered in smoke. Algerian firefighters are hard at work trying to stop the 13 fires that are currently raging in the north and east of Algeria, and stopping this progress is difficult. Since Sunday, at least 34 people have died in these violent outbreaks. The buildings were completely charred, the flames leaving only smoking ruins in their path. “In three hours, everything went to dust. Nothing left”says the resident of the TF1 13H video at the beginning of the article.
The affected villages, mostly located in the mountainous region of Kabylia, are covered with dense forest, and the vegetation, which has dried up in several weeks due to intense heat, cannot withstand the slightest fire. On Algerian television, images of chaos follow each other: flames, higher than trees, which directly threaten the house, ocher clouds covering the sky, or even local residents who are forced to do their best to extinguish the flames and the last coals with branches or bottles of water.
“Completely mad”
Everyone is left to their own devices and distraught, and several dozen victims are trapped in the flames. “People were in complete panic. Those who stayed at home got away with it. But others died, like a woman who left on the roads with a seven-month-old child., describes Algerian journalist Hammu Merzouk of Berbère Television. The soldiers were even surrounded by flames when they were evacuated from Beni Xila, in the Bejaia region, in the north of the country, accompanied by residents of neighboring villages. According to the Ministry of Defense, ten servicemen were killed.
More than 80 people, including 25 military personnel, have been injured in the fires in the same region, according to local media Radio Soummam. More than 1,500 people also had to be evacuated as firestorms approached their homes. Some tourists were also caught in the fire at popular seaside resorts on the coast, which were destroyed by the flames. “We were awakened in the middle of the night, we escaped from the residence and managed to hide on a rock”, says, for example, a vacationer in a video posted online. Behind him is a smoldering shore, flames devour the coastal trees, and a thick column of smoke from above.
Fortunately, “civil protection was able to put out most of the fires, i.e. 80%, after continuous mobilization during the night from Monday to Tuesday”This is stated in the message of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Tuesday. Progress was made, in part, thanks to aerial firefighting equipment and improved weather conditions, in particular the reduction in temperature, which peaked at 48 degrees in some areas.
- REPORT – ‘Firefighters must not approach’: Greeks often left alone in the face of wildfires
Every summer, forest fires occur in the north and east of Algeria, a phenomenon that intensifies from year to year under the influence of climate change, leading to droughts and heat waves. The three prefectures affected since Sunday, namely Bouira, Hijel and Bejaia, have already suffered serious fires over the past two years, which have killed about 130 people.
In neighboring Tunisia, in the Tabarka border region in the country’s northwest, serious fires have also engulfed an area already devastated by last week’s fires. Record temperatures of 50 degrees have been recorded in recent days, with gusts of wind further complicating the work of firefighters. More than 300 Mellula villagers were evacuated Monday by sea, others by land, and other fires continued into Tuesday.
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