(Ksar El Kebir) Supported by firefighters and military reinforcements, Moroccan firefighting services continued on Saturday to fight the fires that have been ravaging remote wooded areas in the north of the kingdom for four days, authorities told AFP. local.
Posted at 5:49 p.m.
Half of the approximately 4,660 hectares affected by the disasters went up in smoke in the province of Larache, where the most important outbreak is located and where one person died.
A total of 1325 families from 19 douars (villages) have been evacuated so far in this region, according to local sources.
Additional reinforcements from the army and firefighters have been deployed since Friday, particularly in Ksar El Kébir, one of the most exposed areas, difficult to access.
Hundreds of hectares of forest land have been destroyed in the neighboring provinces of Ouazzane, Tetouan and Taza.
The flames are fanned by very high temperatures, approaching 40 degrees, and violent gusts of wind, even if the redoubled efforts of the fire services combined with less unfavorable weather conditions suggest a respite on Sunday.
The causes of these fires are not known but the human factor is not excluded, according to the authorities.
In addition to four army Canadair water bombers and four Turbo Thrush spray planes, at the rate of dozens of rotations, several hundred elements of the Civil Protection, Waters and Forests, Royal Armed Forces (FAR) and of the gendarmerie, assisted by local authorities and volunteers are still mobilized to try to stop the advance of the fires.
By way of comparison, a total of 2,782 hectares of forest had been affected by 285 fires from January to September 2021 in Morocco, in particular in the mountainous region of the Rif (north), according to the Department of Water and Forests.
Morocco has been hit for several days by a heat wave, with temperatures approaching 45 degrees Celsius, in a context of extraordinary drought and water stress.
Across the Strait of Gibraltar, devastating fires are also raging across southern western Europe as a result of a heatwave that could shatter several temperature records early next week.