Wildfires raging across Algeria have killed 25 people, including 10 soldiers trying to get the flames under control in the face of high winds and scorching summer temperatures, government ministries said.
At least 1,500 people were evacuated, the Interior Ministry said, without providing details.
The Interior Ministry announced 15 deaths and 24 injuries. In addition, the Defence Ministry later announced 10 soldiers were killed and 25 injured as they fought fires in the resort area of Beni Ksila east of the capital Algiers. It wasn’t immediately clear over what period of time the casualties happened, but the fires have been burning for several days.
Wildfires, some spread by strong winds, moved across forests and agricultural areas in 16 regions causing 97 blazes in the north African country. The largest and deadliest fires ravaged parts of Bejaia and Jijel — in the Kabyle region east of Algiers — and Bouira, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Algiers, the Interior Ministry said.
Operations to tamp down the fires included some 7,500 firefighters and 350 trucks on the ground as well as air support.
Algeria is no stranger to summer wildfires. At least 37 people were killed last August after wildfires blazed near Algeria’s northern border with Tunisia.
A year earlier, authorities said dozens were killed in blazes — including soldiers called in to help fight the fires in the mountainous Kabyle region that is dotted with villages.
Strong winds and successive heat waves have fuelled vicious fires in Greece and elsewhere around the Mediterranean this summer. AFP looks at the deadliest wildfires in the region since 2000.
More than 90 people, including 33 soldiers, were killed in dozens of wildfires in Algeria in August 2021.
The government blamed arsonists and a blistering heatwave for the blazes, but experts also criticised authorities for failing to prepare for the annual wildfire season.
In August 2022, massive blazes killed 37 people over several days in northeastern El Tarf province, near the border with Tunisia.
More than 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) went up in smoke in El Kala National Park, a UNESCO-listed heritage spot famous for its rich marine, dune, lake and forest ecosystems.
In Greece’s worst-ever fire disaster, 102 people died when wildfires swept through homes and vehicles in the coastal town of Mati near Athens in July 2018, leaving only charred remains.
The majority of the victims were trapped by the flames as they sat in traffic jams while trying to flee. Others drowned while trying to escape by sea.
In 2007, a 12-day inferno starting in late August killed at least 67 people and destroyed 800 homes across the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
The flames engulfed most of the region’s olive groves. The Aegean island of Evia was also badly affected.
In all 77 people died that summer due to fires.
The deadliest wildfires in Portugese history broke out in the central Leiria region during a heatwave in June 2017 and burned through hills covered with pine and eucalyptus trees for five days.
Many of the 63 people who died became trapped in their cars while trying to escape.
In October, a new series of deadly fires broke out in northern Portugal, killing another 45 people as well as four in neighbouring Spain. Those fires were chiefly blamed on arsonists.—AFP
