Tunisian fire brigades in the maloula region bordering Algeria continued their efforts to extinguish a forest fire raging for two days, the Civil Protection said.

 

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edited by |Jus Mcmahon

 

Middle East  section -  CJ journalist

 

Tunisia – July,20,2023

 

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"Firefighting operations are continuing in coordination with the army by allocating an aircraft to reach the flames in difficult areas,"regional director of civil protection Adel al-Obeidi told AFP.

He added that the fire came on about 470 hectares of forests in maloua, which belongs to the coastal city of Tabarka.

Also," 12 families consisting of 24 members were evacuated "who were transferred to remote dwellings from the fire areas," without registering injuries or human losses, " according to al-Obeidi.

The Tunisian authorities decided to "temporarily close the border crossing in maloua and divert travelers between the two countries to the Bush crossing" due to the density of smoke on the road leading to the crossing.

An AFP reporter saw plumes of thick smoke over the trees and tongues of flame rising, while a group of firefighters are trying to stretch water hoses from their trucks in an attempt to extinguish pockets of fire.

The causes of the fire in this rugged mountainous region, where pine forests abound, are not yet known.

Tunisia is currently experiencing a heat wave that exceeds normal rates by between six and 10 degrees.

Meteorologists expect the temperature to reach 47 degrees Celsius today in areas of southern Tunisia.

Fires in the country are frequent during the summer with high temperatures in the forests and fields of grain plantations.

In the summer of 2022, a fire broke out in the "BU Qarn'in" area adjacent to the capital, which affected 533 hectares of Aleppo pine forests and took three days to extinguish.

Experts say that climate changes are fueling and exacerbating extreme weather phenomena around the planet.

 

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