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Firefighters battle raging wildfires in Syria's Latakia amid harsh heatwave

27 Jul 2023 11:23am
A firefighter sprays water to cool off the ground of a charred mountain slope near the regime-controlled town of Shin is Syria's Homs governorate, a day after a fire devastated the area, on July 19, 2023. - (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
A firefighter sprays water to cool off the ground of a charred mountain slope near the regime-controlled town of Shin is Syria's Homs governorate, a day after a fire devastated the area, on July 19, 2023. - (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

DAMASCUS - Fire crews on Wednesday battled numerous blazes amid a heatwave and have controlled most of them in Syria's northwestern province of Latakia, said officials.

Amer Ismail Hilal, governor of Latakia, said that firefighters have been trying to control new blazes in the area for two days as flames have burned large swathes of agricultural and forest areas in Latakia.

About 70 percent of regional fires were controlled, the Civil Defense Commander in Latakia told local media.

He noted that the fires randomly broke out in areas not connected to each other.

The current fires in Latakia started on Tuesday in a forested region. Strong winds and the difficult-to-reach mountainous terrain contributed to the rapid spread of fire.

According to Bassem Douba, director of agriculture and agrarian reform in Latakia, preliminary estimation indicated that over 5,000 dunums (5 square km) were burned entirely.

An investigation into the cause of the fires and a final estimation of their damage are underway, said officials. - XINHUA

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