Darb Akkar volunteers return to Lebanon after helping fight Syria's fires

BEIRUT — Two days after traveling to Syria to assist with firefighting efforts, volunteers from the Darb Akkar environmental protection association returned to Lebanon on Saturday, the head of the association, Ali Taleb, told L'Orient Today.

Wildfires in the coastal province of Latakia have been raging for 10 days. In a statement published Saturday and relayed by our North Lebanon correspondent Michel Hallak, the association said the fire "has so far devoured thousands of hectares of forests in Syria," describing it as one of the "largest environmental disasters the country has witnessed."

The group noted that their participation in Syria’s firefighting efforts helped build bridges of cooperation with “Syrian brothers and regional partners.” “While in Syria, the team coordinated with members of the Syrian Civil Defense, as well as representatives from Turkish and Jordanian Civil Defense and relief organizations working in the field. These professional meetings fostered knowledge exchange, insights into different operational methods, and opened the door to future cooperation and joint training opportunities,” the statement said.

Taleb and our North Lebanon correspondent told L'Orient Today on Thursday that this was the first time the association had operated outside of Lebanon. "This is a symbolic participation for a cooperation that can be built over the days and years to come," Taleb said.

Syrian firefighters, supported by international teams, are facing particularly difficult conditions: extreme heat, strong winds, rugged mountainous terrain and the presence of landmines in a country devastated by years of war.

The fires "have scorched about 100 square kilometers of forest and agricultural land, which represents more than 3 percent of Syria’s total forest cover,” said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Syria in a statement to AFP on July 8. According to OCHA, around 5,000 people have been affected by the fires in the Latakia region, where several communities have been evacuated. No casualties have been reported.

Nearly seven months after the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria remains deeply scarred by over a decade of war that has ravaged its economy and infrastructure.

As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of droughts and wildfires around the world, Syria has also been hit hard by heat waves and low rainfall. In June, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told AFP that Syria had “not experienced such poor climatic conditions in 60 years.”