(Ksar El Kebir) A person has been killed in the violent fires that have ravaged remote wooded regions of northern Morocco since Wednesday, causing the evacuation of hundreds of families and destroying thousands of hectares of forest, the authorities said on Friday. authorities to AFP.
Posted at 5:52 p.m.
“The body of a person with multiple burns was found” in one of the fires in the Larache region, according to a press release from the authorities.
At least 2,000 hectares of forest – especially oaks, pines and other conifers – have already been destroyed in the provinces of Larache, Ouezzane, Tetouan, Taza and Chefchaouen, the last affected, all located in the north of the country, according to a report provisional Friday evening.
The rapid progression of the flames, fanned by gusts of up to 45 km / h, forced 1,156 families to evacuate seventeen douars (villages) in the burnt areas of Larache, where three major outbreaks persist, according to the authorities.
Drone
In this same region, an AFP photographer saw residents taking care of the protection of their village against fire, near the town of Ksar El Kébir, one of the most devastated areas.
For the first time, at this location, forest rangers have used a drone to help geolocate a fire. Thick columns of smoke emanated from the burned massifs.
In the region of Tetouan, near the Mediterranean port of Tangier, about sixty houses burned and nearly a hundred heads of cattle perished. 247 people were evacuated there. In Taza, 420 villagers had to leave their homes in eight douars.
In addition to four Canadair water bombers from the army and four spray planes, hundreds of elements from Civil Protection, Waters and Forests, the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) and the Gendarmerie, assisted by local authorities and of volunteers, were mobilized to try to stop the advance of the fires. Reinforcements have been dispatched to the affected areas.
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.
On the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, fires are also raging in southwestern Europe, from the Iberian Peninsula to France, in the midst of a heat wave.