Over the past hours, the civil defense forces, with the support of the Lebanese army’s helicopters, are making great efforts to contain the fires that move from one place to another quickly.
“neglect”
In contact with Sky News Arabia said: Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said that the causes of the fires are “climate factors, drought and high temperatures, in addition to farmers’ neglect to clean their lands and orchards from dry weeds, and the spread of random waste dumps that are burned chaotically,” he said.
The minister revealed that “the preparation of a strategic plan that notes a pivotal role for municipalities in cleaning the areas near the forests, and preventing the dumping and burning of waste near them,” adding that “the process of extinguishing fires is carried out in primitive ways. The army helicopters are making unremitting efforts to put out the fires, relying on the help of the civil defense.”
On the other hand, environmental experts attributed the causes of the fires to climate change and global warming, which changed the world’s climate.
Limited Effective Mechanisms
This disaster comes after years of failure to equip a fleet of aircraft dedicated to extinguishing fires.
To put out fires, Lebanon relies on the mechanisms of the Civil Defense, which are limited in effectiveness, due to the lack of roads in the mountains to help reach the burning fires.
Reliance is also made on the Lebanese army’s helicopters, which perform the difficult task, knowing that they are not originally equipped to put out fires, which poses a danger to them and their crew.
According to information obtained by “Sky News Arabia”, the country’s senior stakeholders refuse to appoint forest officers (guards) to monitor forests and report fires as soon as they start, and prevent farmers from burning the remains of their orchards.
for coal
On the other hand, the head of the YASA Association in Lebanon, Ziad Akl, told Sky News Arabia, “As every year, after late rain, drought and the outbreak of some fires in the bushes, some weak souls take the opportunity to ignite some fires, to get after extinguishing them on Wood for making charcoal as a source of heating, in light of the sharp rise in fuel prices.”
Akl described the fires as “catastrophic”, given the difficulty of extinguishing them and their proximity to homes, especially in the Batroun area in the north and the town of Beit Meri in Mount Lebanon.
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