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Algeria Civil Defence teams continue efforts to put out eight fires in five states

August 16, 2022 at 8:21 pm

Smokes and flames rise from the wildfire as ground and aerial extinguishing operations continue in Tizi Ouzou, at Beni Douala town of Algeria on August 12, 2021 [Mousaab Rouibi/Anadolu Agency]

The Algerian Civil Defence announced, on Tuesday, that its teams are working by land and air to put out eight fires that broke out in five states, while keeping two other fires under observation.

The Civil Defence added in a statement, that the states where the fires broke out are Tizi Ouzou, Bejaia, Bouira in the Kabylie region, Tipasa and Skikda, explaining that the Army’s air teams and more than 1,000 civil protection personnel, as well as 192 fire trucks, are involved in efforts to put out the fires.

Two more fires are still under observation, because the burning points are difficult to reach, but there is a possibility that they will ignite again, although they are considered weak, according to the same source.

More than a week ago, separate fires swept through the forests in several states in the north of the country, coinciding with a severe heat wave and hot southern winds.

READ: Morocco tackles wildfires as Algeria placed on ‘high alert’

According to observers, the fires are less severe than the ones that erupted in the summer of 2021, which killed dozens and destroyed more than 100,000 hectares.

On the other hand, the state-run Sonatrach company for hydrocarbons said one of the three victims who had sustained injuries when a fire that broke out during the process of supplying a truck with Xylan, an oil derivative, at the refinery’s charging station has succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday morning in Skikda Hospital.

In December 2021, one person died and six others were injured, as a result of a fire that broke out in the same refinery during maintenance work.