Eight dead in Algerian forest fires
Pastor Dale Morgan
Eight dead in Algerian forest fires*
ALGIERS, Aug 30 (AFP) Aug 30, 2007
Forest fires fed by winds off the Sahara and still burning out of
control in northern Algeria have claimed eight lives in the past 48
hours, the country's civil protection services said Thursday.
A lack of specialised water-bombing planes, such as those currently
being used to fight fires in Greece and Spain, adds to the challenges
faced by firefighters and soldiers sent in as reinforcements.
Authorities have been battling 90 separate fires in 19 wooded regions in
the north of the country, from Chlef in the west across to Skikda in the
east.
The flames have consumed 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of woodland and
farmland -- the worst figures since 1983 -- including pine trees, oaks,
cedars and olive groves, spreading a choking black smoke across the
regions affected.
Six people, including a woman and two children, were burnt to death at
Beni Douala, in the Tizi Ouzou district of Kabylie, 110 kilometres (70
miles) east of Algiers, said civil protection service spokesman Mohamed
Amokrane Medjkane.
Two young walkers also perished on the Jijel coastline west of Algiers.
Six villages in the Beni-Douala district, 20 kilometres south of Tizi
Ouzou, were evacuated, as was the airport at Bejaia to the east and a
nearby riding club.
The fires have been burning for several days now, but all the deaths
occured over the last 48 hours. Farm animals and chained-up dogs
abandoned by their owners have also perished in the flames.