In Pics: Multiple Wildfires in Syria, Lebanon for 3rd Day

For the third day in a row, huge fires have devoured large areas of forests in Syria and Lebanon. The fires broke out in some areas near civilians’ homes without the firefighters being able to extinguish them all so far.

On Saturday, Syrian TV has been broadcasting footage from the fires’ sites, where it said that firefighting teams continue to work to extinguish them.

The fires have spread over hundreds of hectares in the countryside of Lattakia, Tartous (west) and Homs (central).

On Friday evening, the Syrian Minister of Agriculture, Mohamed Hassan Qatana, spoke of 79 fires, “including 45 in Lattakia, 33 in Tartous, and the rest in Homs."

It is likely that this will be the first time that Syria witnesses "this number of fires in one day."

"We are facing the largest series of fires that the Latakia Governorate has witnessed over the years,” said the Latakia Fire Brigade on its Facebook page.

On Friday, the Ministry of Health announced that two people had died in Lattakia due to the fires that forced several families to flee after the fire approached their homes.

The Syrian Regime News Agency SANA reported that houses were burned in the city of Banias in Tartous Governorate, indicating that firefighting teams were able to put out some fires in Homs.

Activists on social media circulated photos and videos showing the fires attached to the hashtag “Syria is Burning".

Fires are frequent in the summer in the Syrian forests and woodlands. In September also huge fires broke out in large areas in separate sites in the countryside of Hama and Latakia.

In neighboring Lebanon, since Thursday, more than 100 fires have erupted in several forests in the south, north, and east of the country and the mountainous Chouf region, according to the Director of Civil Defense Operations, George Abu Mousa.

"We have exhausted 80% of our strength, and we have used almost all of our centers in Lebanon. The situation is insane, the fires are everywhere," Abu Mousa told AFP.

He explained that the bulk of the fires were extinguished, pointing out that a few huge fires are still raging in the Chouf and Akkar regions, which are "difficult to reach" and that military helicopters are taking part in extinguishing them.

In October 2019, huge fires devoured large forest areas in Lebanon and locked civilians in their homes amid the inability of the authorities, which received support from several countries to put them out.

These fires caused widespread anger and even formed one of the reasons behind the unprecedented popular protests that took place in Lebanon on October 17 and lasted for several months against the political class.