Rabat – One volunteer was killed and another was critically injured on Monday while helping Moroccan authorities contain the wildfire that broke out in “Khandek Tessyana” forest near Taounate, northern Morocco.
The wounded individual was evacuated to the Taounate provincial hospital to receive the necessary treatment, according to local authorities.
Members of the Moroccan Civil Protection, Auxiliary Forces, Water and forest services, and Royal Gendarmerie intervened to contain the fire.
The intervention crew also managed to keep the population in the village nearby safe.
Authorities continue to intervene to keep the fire under control, although it has already ravaged 33 hectares of forest.
With Morocco having experienced scorching temperatures over the past two weeks, forest fires that broke out across the country have so far ravaged 10,000 hectares of forest, Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Sadiki said on Monday.
The fires are under control so far, the minister noted, with the exception of a forest fire which broke out on Monday afternoon in the municipality of Tazrout, a small town in Larache Province, northern Morocco.
The northwestern region of Larache is the most affected by the wildfires, as an area of 123,000 hectares was threatened to be completely devastated by the fires, affecting more than 5,200 families in 35 villages.
A total of 4,200 members from the Waters and Forests services, Civil Protection, Royal Armed Forces, Royal Gendarmerie, auxiliary forces, firefighters, and local authorities as well as volunteers were mobilized to contain the fires.
To fight against this disaster, five “canadair” planes of the Royal Air Forces, eight “Turbo-Trash” planes, helicopters of the Royal Gendarmerie, as well as “drones” of the National Water and Forests Agency were deployed.
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