According to preliminary official figures, the total number of victims of the fires that have engulfed 14 provinces of Algeria since yesterday has risen to 37 people and hundreds of injured. the largest number of victims of fires in the recent history of the country.
The “Civil Defense” services announced today, Thursday, that the number of victims of fires in the state of El Tarf since yesterday has reached 30 dead and 161 injured, including 21 under medical supervision. According to Interior Minister Kamal Beljud, while the death of 5 people from the same family was recorded in the state of Souk Ahras, their bodies were discovered this morning, and in the state of Setif, the death of a woman and her daughter was recorded yesterday.
To determine the extent of the impact and consequences, Prime Minister Ayman bin Abdul Rahman arrived today in the hardest hit state of Al Tarf, where civil protection teams are still working to put out fires burning at several points, Al-Arabiya Al reported. This is reported by the correspondent Hadat. 350 families fled their homes in the Kharas market, and security forces blocked many roads due to the fire. Helicopters invaded three states yesterday, including the Kharas market, which has a population of about 500,000.
Significantly, these fires have revived the water launcher shortage controversy that previously rocked the country last summer. The Minister of the Interior explained that since the beginning of this month (August 2022), 106 fires have broken out in the country, which led to the destruction of 800 hectares of forest and 1,800 hectares of land, stressing that some of them are artificial. . Every year, forest fires occur in the north of the country, and this phenomenon is increasing dramatically due to climate change. The summer of 2021 marked a record-breaking death toll as at least ninety people died in wildfires that engulfed the north of the country and destroyed more than 100,000 hectares of forest.
