LATTAKIA, Syria
Syria’s Civil Defense teams, known as the White Helmets, fought for over seven hours to contain a massive wildfire that erupted Tuesday in the forested outskirts of Harf al-Musaytirah, a rural town near Latakia. The blaze was one of 20 simultaneous wildfires that tore through forests and farmland across Syria’s western coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, underscoring the growing strain on the war-torn nation’s emergency responders.
By Wednesday morning, the White Helmets had extinguished 18 fires but continued battling two large outbreaks in rural Latakia until today morning. One, near Deir Hanna in the Qardaha countryside, spread rapidly due to high winds and rough terrain, complicating containment efforts.
According to the White Helms, Multiple fire hotspots and inaccessible mountainous areas are making this their most challenging operation, as reinforcements were dispatched from Dama and Jisr Al-Shughur in Idlib, northwestern Syria to assist.
In Tartus, fires near Safita and the Tartus-Homs highway were subdued, along with blazes in the city’s industrial zone and Dahret al-Safra countryside.
The coastal wildfires follow a devastating pattern. In late February, the White Helmets reported extinguishing 1,049 fires across Syria in just 47 days, 25 of which occurred in displacement camps in the north, often sparked by heating devices during winter.
