Wildfires raged across Lebanon for a second day Saturday, with Army helicopters tending to the widespread fires, as temperatures remained high in the country.
According to a statement by the Army, their helicopters tended to fires in areas all over Lebanon such as Deir al-Harf in Baabda, the Chouf mountain village of Bater, Bzal in Akkar in the north and Ras al-Metn in Mount Lebanon.
Powerful wildfires across Lebanon today in South Lebanon, Chouf, Metn & Akkar in the north.
— Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) October 9, 2020
Video below from a school surrounded by fire in south. We had massive fires around the same time last year.
Nothing done by officials to better equip firefighterspic.twitter.com/aToe8IhYb9
Civil Defense teams were also dispatched to put out fires in different areas like Koura in the north.
Massive fires erupted across Lebanon Friday engulfing greenery in villages from the north to the south.
Almost a year earlier, Lebanon had witnessed devastating forest fires that ravaged the country’s mountains and caused irreparable damage to forests that could take upward of 20 or 30 years to grow back. Temperatures recorded at the time were at least 3 to 4 degrees higher than the maximum average temperatures in October over the past 150 years.
Compared to last year, however, the average temperature has been in its normal range of 35 degrees Celsius, a source from the Meteorology Department at Rafik Hariri International Airport told The Daily Star.
The cause of wildfires is most likely due to human activity in these areas, exacerbated by high temperatures and low humidity levels typically witnessed this time of year, according to the Meteorology Department.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
