High temperatures, strong winds, and tall, rugged mountains in the forests of Latakia, coupled with the presence of unexploded war ordnance, are vastly complicating firefighting efforts as civil defense teams and volunteers scramble to contain the flames.
“The magnitude of the fires cannot be described. When there is no wind, we suppress them and put them all out, but when wind picks up again, the fires restart as if we have done nothing. The wind feeds the fire,” Ayman al-Natour, a member of Syria’s civil defense, told Rudaw on Monday.
He expressed optimism that they will eventually succeed in putting out the flames, which have burned some 100 square kilometers of forest so far, according to Syrian authorities.
Neighboring Turkey and Jordan have also sent volunteers to help Syrian authorities with firefighting efforts, while youth from Latakia and other parts of Syria have scrambled to assist authorities.
“We could not help but participate because volunteers came from Turkey, Jordan, and other provinces of Syria. May God help them. The difficulty of the terrain hinders firefighting work. While we were putting out the flames, we heard the sounds of explosions from war remnants,” said volunteer Anas Sayis Ahmed. “Thank God, no one was harmed.”
On Sunday, Syria’s emergency and disaster management ministry described the fires as a “climate and environmental disaster.”
Minister Raed al-Saleh said on Monday that interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa called him for a briefing on the situation.
Over 80 teams and 160 firefighting vehicles are taking part in the operations.