LATAKIA, Syria (AP) — Syrian firefighters are facing heavy winds, high temperatures and ordnance left behind from the 13-year civil war as they try to extinguish some of country’s worst wildfires in years, a government minister said Monday.
The fires, which started last week, have proven difficult to bring under control despite reinforcements from Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon that came to the war-torn country to help Syrian teams fight the blaze.
Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh said their main challenges are two locations in the coastal province of Latakia that they have been trying to control for two days.
“We have controlled other locations,” al-Saleh told The Associated Press at the scene.
On the second day of the fire, firefighters managed to get 90% of the wildfires under control but explosions of left-over war ordnance and heavy winds helped spread the fires again, al-Saleh said. He added that 120 teams are fighting the blazes.
On Monday, the Lebanese army said it sent two helicopters to help fight the fires in coordination with Syrian authorities.
Over the weekend, U.N. teams deployed to the Syrian coast where they are conducting urgent assessments to determine the scale of the damage and to identify the most immediate humanitarian needs.
Summer fires are common in the eastern Mediterranean region, where experts warn that climate change is intensifying conditions that then lead to blazes.
Also, below-average rainfall over the winter left Syrians struggling with water shortages this summer, as the springs and rivers that normally supply much of the population with drinking water have gone dry.
