Baladi News – Idlib (Mohammed Walid Jibs)
Today, Thursday, May 18, the Syrian Civil Defense counted in a report the number of fires it responded to in the liberated areas in northwest Syria, during the current month of May and the first quarter of this year.
In its report, the Foundation said that with the rise in temperatures and the advent of the harvest season, the rates of agricultural fires and their danger to crops, especially wheat and barley, increase, and this comes at a time when civilians in northwestern Syria are suffering from the continuation of the war between the regime and Russia, and their destruction of the basics of agricultural production. The cultivated areas are shrinking due to the displacement campaigns, the proximity of thousands of hectares of agricultural lands to the seam lines, and the tragedy compounded by the devastating earthquake.
In the highest daily count of fires this season, 19 fires broke out yesterday, Wednesday, in northwestern regions of Syria, 8 of which were in agricultural lands, one of which was in lands planted with grain on the outskirts of the city of Atarib, resulting from the targeting of agricultural lands by the regime forces and Russia, according to the report. .
Since the beginning of the current month, May 2023, the Foundation’s firefighting teams have responded to 91 fires in northwestern regions of Syria, of which 17 were in agricultural lands and crops, 7 in forests and woodlands, 29 in civilian homes, and 9 in camps, and these fires injured 4. Civilians with varying degrees of burns, including a child.
Last April, the White Helmets firefighting teams put out 105 fires in northwestern Syria, including 51 fires in civilian homes, 9 fires in camps, 8 fires in agricultural lands, and 7 fires in primitive fuel refining stations.
During the first quarter of this year (January, February and March), the Foundation’s teams put out 412 fires, including 183 house fires, 48 in camps, 33 in primitive fuel refinery stations, and 6 fires in ovens. These fires led to the death of 8 civilians, including women and children. 44 civilians, including women and children, were wounded.
The report indicated that the organization’s firefighting teams developed a plan to respond to agricultural crop fires, aiming at rapid access and good coordination of responses, to reduce as much as possible the losses resulting from crop fires, and to take practical awareness measures and measures to limit their outbreak, and deal quickly with them.
The plan includes all regions of northwestern Syria at the level of Syrian Civil Defense centers, in proportion to the distribution of these centers and the cultivated areas in each region, from Jabal al-Zawiya in the southern countryside of Idlib to Jarabulus in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo.
The needs of these centers and points in terms of equipment, materials, and cadres were studied and evaluated and strengthened with the necessary support, and support plans were prepared from other centers by identifying support centers for each main center, safe and fast roads, strengthening communication channels, raising readiness for direct response, and accelerating access to water sources and identifying them, according to the report.
With the beginning of the month of May of each year, Syria witnesses a clear increase in the number of fires, and the increase in fires is due to the high temperatures, in addition to the deliberate targeting of agricultural lands by the regime forces and Russia in conjunction with the harvest season.
