La lutte anti-feux de forêts montre son efficacité

Forest anti-fire struggle shows its effectiveness

Prevention gives fruit

Forest and brushwood fire teams are fully mobilized on the ground in August and continue their operations to master the fires that have declared themselves here and there, in Algeria, most of whom are extinct quickly thanks to the vigilance of professionals in this struggle and the collaboration of the population who signals the slightest start of fire. Intensive efforts to fight against a series of forest fires and brush in several wilayas.
Thus, extinction operations were underway yesterday in the wilaya of Blida where a fire broke out in the bush and the garrigue in the area of Ben Saada, commune of Djebbara. The civil protection units of the wilaya of Blida, supported by a mobile convoy of fighting forest fires, intervened to extinguish this fire.
Ditto in the wilaya of Mila, in the hamlet of Boudaoud, commune of Tessala El Matai where the intervention is still in progress, and another in Bakhouche (commune of Ben Yahia Abdelrahmane), which was fully mastered. The teams managed to put out a bush and garrigue fire in the Mathen area, a commune of Chemini, wilaya of Béjaïa, and a forest fire in the village of Rabah Matatla, commune of Bin El Ouidane, wilaya of Skikda. Securing operations continued on both sites to avoid any recovery.
The civil protection services have also announced the complete and final extinction of several fires, notably in the municipalities of Amizour, Oued Ghir, Kherrata, Tala Hamza, Tizi N’berber and Imadane, in the wilaya of Béjaïa.
A fire also declared itself in Aïn Beïda, in the commune of Guerrouma, in the province of Bouira (completely mastered). All fires in the wilaya of Tizi-Ouzou have also been extinguished, especially in the forest of Tizi Lfer, in the commune of Azazga, and in other localities in the communes of Aïn El Hammam, Sidi Naaman, Boujima and Tizi-Ouzou. The controlled fires concerned villages of the wilayas of Sétif (where brush fires in the villages of Laanasser and Imfetahen, commune of Babour and Aït Tizi, were circumscribed), El Tarf (where the forest fire in the village Chaabet Lallawa, commune of Aïn El ASSEL, was extinguished), Guelma ( Djabar Tayeb, commune of Bouchegouf, was extinguished), Jijel (where the forest fire in Es-Safia, commune of El Aouana was reached) and Batna (a reforestation fire in the commune of Aïn Yagout, near the public discharge, was quickly mastered). As a reminder, the Directorate General of Forests (DGF) took a series of proactive measures in the context of the prevention of forest fires during the 2025 season, in view of the difficult climatic conditions marked by a high rise in temperatures, said the director of protection of fauna and flora at the DGF, Saïd Si Ali.
In a statement to the APS, he said that Algeria, like the other countries of the Mediterranean basin, faces fires annually that ravages plant coverage, hence the adoption, by high authorities, of a national strategy focused on proactivity and coordination between the various sectors with the aim of preserving the country’s forest heritage as in 2024, where the forest fires had decreased in 91%. In this sense, the manager has cited the installation of a national forest protection commission bringing together representatives of 13 ministries, in addition to 40 wilaya commissions, 471 commissions at the Daïras and delegated wilayas and 1,263 municipal commissions responsible for the preparation and implementation of the fire -fighting campaign. He said the forest trails have been cleaned and released from any flammable vegetation, fire trenches have been created and those existing have been cleaned. The fact remains that many places remain vulnerable to fires due to plastic packaging waste and others which are scattered on green spaces and sometimes wooded embankments, including along boulevards in an urban environment, especially in the capital. Dysfunctions in the application of forest and brush fire preventive measures are not allowed. Dark collection and cleaning operations must be part of this framework.
Lakhdar A.