Smoke rising over the Roumieh forest in Metn. (Credit: @EliasHankach/Twitter)
BEIRUT — A fire broke out on Monday in the Roumieh forest along the Metn highway. Firefighters were mobilized to try to contain it, reports the National News Agency.
Here’s what we know:
• According to a Civil Defense official, who spoke on the local channel MTV, the fire was started intentionally, in three different places in the forest, probably by people collecting firewood.
• On Sunday, the municipal police of Roumieh seized a large number of logs cut in the wood by several individuals, who were briefly arrested, according to a press release.
• Reacting to this fire, caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassine, whose ministry had warned last Friday against the increased risk of fire in the middle of the dry season, said he was monitoring the situation with caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim and Director of Civil Defense Raymond Khattar. One of his advisers and an expert in natural resource management are on site, Yassine said in a tweet.
• For his part, MP Elias Hankach (Kataeb/Metn), announced that he had contacted the army command to ask them to send helicopters to help put out the fire, which broke out in a place difficult to access for volunteers and the Civil Defense, in order "to avoid a new disaster in our forest."