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WILDFIRES DISPATCH

Unpaid and underfunded, volunteer firefighters battle the odds to save Akkar’s forests

Dozens of wildfires ravage remote, mountainous Akkar’s forests each year. Amid climate change and state neglect, local hikers and nature lovers are coming to the rescue.

Unpaid and underfunded, volunteer firefighters battle the odds to save Akkar’s forests

A volunteer firefighter at a wildfire training camp in Andaqit, Akkar. June 2, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)

ANDAQIT, Lebanon — About a dozen young men weighed down by firefighting suits, helmets and a water hose sprint from their truck and up a steep hill, kicking their way through the dense, thorny forest.

“Yalla, yalla!” Hurry up! In seconds, they reach the top.

It’s time to turn on the water spigot and start saving what they can of the junipers and snoubar pine trees, up in the remote mountains of Lebanon’s far northern governorate, Akkar.

First, one team leader explains, they need to start at the base of the flames, to make sure they can stop the dangerous blaze before it spreads. They also need to scout an escape route in case they have to get out fast. “The important thing is that you have a plan,” says Antonio Meaiki, a 27-year-old team leader.

A volunteer firefighting team at the Andaqit training camp practices how to put out a fire on a forested hill. June 4, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

Only, there’s no fire at all. There’s also no water in the hose, and the men aren’t in any real danger.

Instead, they’re here on the outskirts of Andaqit to simulate the kinds of blazes they might encounter in the coming weeks, as summer fire season brings hot, dry weather ripe for burning Akkar’s prized snoubar trees to ash.

Climate change equals worse fires

Those temperatures have only risen in recent years, alongside worse droughts and more frequent and devastating fires at ever higher elevations above sea level — including Akkar, says George Mitri, ​​director of the Land and Natural Resources Program at the University of Balamand. The program analyzes forest fires across Lebanon and runs an online platform tracking wildfire risks based on weather data.

Trainees at the Andaqit firefighting camp learn how to rappel down a slope, a skill that can later go toward rescuing wildfire victims. June 4, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

“Our research is clearly showing a relationship between climate change and fires,” Mitri told L’Orient Today in early April. At the time, worldwide data showed the past March had been Earth’s second-warmest on record.

“One of our studies showed … how some areas in the country were affected by increasing drought conditions starting in 2020,” according to Mitri. “Most of those areas are located in mountainous areas,” like Akkar.

Pest outbreaks have also dried out some trees ahead of fire season, and dense forests plus strong winds in Akkar put the governorate at special risk. A more than three-year countrywide economic crisis of historic proportions hasn’t helped, either.

There are 600 Civil Defense volunteers on hand in Akkar governorate, Civil Defense spokesperson Charbel Msann tells L’Orient Today.

The first of three planned fire observation posts on the outskirts of Andaqit. It was built earlier this month by local NGO Tadbeer. Raffoul Elias, a retired soldier, mans the lookout post with binoculars and a camera-equipped drone to check the valley below for fires and arsonists. June 2, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

Raffoul Elias is a retired soldier who now works as a wildfire watchman for local NGO Tadbeer in Andaqit, Akkar. From a wooden observation tower built earlier this month on the outskirts of Andaqit, he uses binoculars to watch for fires in the valley below. June 2, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

“We have the human capabilities,” he says.” But, “the topography in Akkar is rugged. When there are fires, often there aren’t access roads for us to put them out.” Sometimes they even call on help from army helicopters to fight the wildfires, Msann says.

That’s why one 2021 forest fire in particular turned into such a “catastrophe,” he adds.

‘We rely on ourselves’

“It was over on that hill.”

From her garden in Kfartoun, Siham Melhem points to a spot a couple of kilometers in the distance. It’s a chilly, foggy day just before the Andaqit training camp is set to begin.

The road leading into Kfartoun, a village in Akkar next to the Syrian border. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

One afternoon two years ago, on that hill facing her family’s home, she first saw the flames. Soon, they grew. They would become an all-out forest fire devouring three million trees across 1,500 hectares of land, according to Mitri. Residents say they still aren’t sure of the cause.

Siham and her family did what they always do when a fire breaks out along the hills: they filled a huge metal tank with their own household’s water, lifted it via hand-pumped jacks onto their pickup truck and drove over to the blaze to help first responders put it out.

Most of the family joined in, including Siham’s 15-year-old brother, Amin.

The work stretched into hours. Volunteers from other parts of Akkar and the country also streamed in to help. Local women organized to bring them water and home-cooked food as church bells rang to alert residents. But, as they fought the blaze, tragedy struck. Amin fell as he helped douse the flames, seriously injuring his head.

By the time he reached the closest hospital, it was too late.

“To eternal heaven, the martyr Amin Melhem,” reads a poster that the Melhem family of Kfartoun, Akkar still keeps in their house. Amin was just 15 years old when he died of a head injury while helping residents of his home village put out a devastating wildfire in July 2021. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

The family still keeps a huge wood-framed poster of Amin inside their house, dubbing him a “martyr.”

“In Akkar, there’s no state,” says Jamil, Amin’s father. He rests in a plastic chair at home in a remote corner of Kfartoun. The only way to get there is by crossing a military checkpoint and navigating mountain roads obscured by fog. Jamil’s relatives sit around him for coffee. “Even if we called the Civil Defense, it would take too long to get here. And if there was a hospital closer to us, maybe Amin would still be alive.”

The fire took days and dozens of volunteers to finally extinguish, several young men in Akkar Trail’s firefighter uniforms explain between practice drills at the camp in Andaqit.

Asked if they were able to sleep during that time, they simply laugh. “What sleep?” Some of them were able to drive home to their nearby villages for a few hours of rest at a time. Others, including 27-year-old Lara Moussa from the neighboring town of Qobeiyat, delivered crowdsourced food and drinking water for the firefighters that they gathered by coordinating via WhatsApp.

Trainees at a firefighting camp in Andaqit, Akkar practice isolating a fire by raking away the surrounding flammable brush, making it unable to spread. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

The Akkar Trail team uses welding gloves instead of purpose-built firefighting gloves as they are far cheaper and still protect from extreme heat, explains volunteer Antonio Meaiki. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

Eventually, it worked, though swathes of forest had already been damaged.

A few minutes down the road, goat shepherd Omar al-Khaled leads his herd over the hills that line a twisting highway. He, too, worries about the fires in the area.

“They burn down the plants that the goats feed on,” he says, carrying one of his baby goats. The fires can also cut off routes he’d normally take.

One wildfire about six months ago forced Khaled to take his goats further downhill to a different spot for grazing, he says. “It was a really big fire, it was difficult.”

“You have to get the goats out of there quickly, [you have] to make them flee for safety.”

In the hills surrounding him, winding mountain roads are still surrounded on both sides by the charred remains of 2021’s burnt pine trees, now little more than blackened stumps.

A herd of goats in Kfartoun, a village about half an hour from the firefighter training camp in Andaqit. Shepherd Omar al-Khaled says wildfires impact him because they destroy plants for grazing and make him change his route. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

A volunteer initiative

Some residents are taking proper wildfire training into their own hands.

More than 100 men and several women gather one weekend in early June in Wadi Oudin, a green valley on the outskirts of Andaqit, Akkar, for a firefighting training camp led by local NGOs — the first of its kind, they explain.

They are surrounded by overnight tents, pickups converted into makeshift fire trucks and metal rakes to practice clearing the dry, flammable brush underfoot. A few arghilehs hint at the prospect of downtime later in the evening.

Most of the participants, including the trainers themselves, only learned firefighting in the past couple of years – before that they were simply outdoor guides and nature enthusiasts. One of them, Hatem Elfahel from nearby Akroum, also rescues injured wild animals.

A team of first responders from Meshmesh, Akkar hang out, smoke and sing traditional songs around their campfire after a day of training in Andaqit. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

Arghileh tobacco under preparation next to a campfire after a long day of firefighter training in Andaqit, Akkar. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

The camp is part of Akkar residents’ efforts over the past two years to combat the growing threat from wildfires to their forests and farmland. They’re doing it for free, says Khaled Taleb, head of the Akkar Trail association based in nearby Meshmesh. His group co-organized the weekend’s training camp.

Why? “To be honest, I’m just someone who really loves the environment.”

‘The issue is bigger than me’

Volunteer firefighters do practice sessions at the training camp on the outskirts of Andaqit. June 3 and 4, 2023. (João Sousa/L'Orient Today)

“In order to have a fire you need three main elements: oxygen, heat and fuel, something to burn it” Antonio, one of the training camp’s team leaders, explains to a circle of trainees in their uniforms. They’re gathered around a pile of hay just below the tents Saturday afternoon.

“To take out the fire, you need to remove one of those elements. You need to be creative to fight the fire with the resources you have.”

By day, Antonio is a doctor doing his residency at a hospital. But in his free time and on weekends, he volunteers with the Akkar Trail team putting out wildfires. Last month he attended an international wildfire training camp in Poland.

Antonio Meaiki, a member of the Akkar Trail firefighting team, critiques trainees on their strategy after a wildfire simulation at the training camp in Andaqit. June 4, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

Trainees at a firefighting camp in Andaqit, Akkar wait their turn to practice isolating a wildfire using rakes. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

Khaled Taleb, also from Akkar Trail, starts lighting up a handful of hay in front of the trainees — the first real fire of the camp session. He’s quiet, but grabs their attention and they watch the flame grow. After a minute or so, the trainees pick up metal rakes and start clearing the dry brush surrounding the flame so it can’t spread.

“That’s the principle of isolation!” says Antonio.

Soon, the fire dies down in a cloud of smoke, no water tank needed.

Nearby, Akkar Trail’s two pickup trucks stand at the ready, rigged with water tanks and hoses. They just refurbished one of them this year with money from GoFundMe donations.

Khaled Taleb, a founder of the Akkar Trail association in Meshmesh, Akkar, guides a training session in Andaqit. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

Khaled Taleb, a founder of the Akkar Trail association in Meshmesh, Akkar, shows trainees how to put out a wildfire on a slope. June 3, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

Just days later, on Friday night, a large wildfire breaks out somewhere in the hills near Meshmesh. Akkar Trail and another group in Meshmesh go along with the local Civil Defense to help put it out. By Saturday morning, today, it’s still burning but tentatively under control, according to Taleb. He and the men take a break to send a selfie.

“To be honest, the issue is bigger than me,” Taleb confides. He says he’s already teaching his children about the environment and hiking.

One of them, five-year-old Adnan, is already fascinated by firefighting and can name the equipment Taleb uses when he leaves home to go help put out a fire. Taleb has a picture on his phone of Adnan in a firefighter costume and plastic hat, holding up a water hose.

He says he’d feel proud if Adnan became a firefighter in the future.

“In conditions like you see today, you can’t turn a blind eye or say ‘it’s not up to me.’”

A forest valley on the outskirts of Andaqit, Akkar, as seen from a newly built wooden watchtower. June 2, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

ANDAQIT, Lebanon — About a dozen young men weighed down by firefighting suits, helmets and a water hose sprint from their truck and up a steep hill, kicking their way through the dense, thorny forest. “Yalla, yalla!” Hurry up! In seconds, they reach the top. It’s time to turn on the water spigot and start saving what they can of the junipers and snoubar pine trees, up in the remote...