Three firefighters were killed and two others were seriously injured Monday evening during a fire in a forest in northern Morocco which, according to a preliminary investigation, is of human origin, indicated Tuesday August 16 to AFP the local authorities.
The five firefighters were in their vehicle which fell into a ravine as they battled the flames, they added.
Four dead
Four men suspected of having started the fire were arrested and handed over to the judicial police before being brought to justice, said the authorities of the province of M'diq-Fnideq, near the port of Tangier.
The fire has so far caused the destruction of around 90 hectares of forest cover, according to initial estimates.
The fire services, including Canadair water bombers, were still mobilized on Tuesday to try to control the disaster and prevent it from spreading to inhabited areas.
Read alsoThe fire in northern Morocco is “totally under control”, announce the authorities
Last month, forest fires in the north of the kingdom killed four people.
At the end of July, a villager was indicted for involuntary fire in the province of Larache, the region most affected by the fires.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, more than 10,000 hectares have been affected by forest fires in several northern regions of Morocco since the beginning of the summer.
Like the south of Western Europe, Morocco was hit by scorching temperatures, in a context of extraordinary drought and water stress.
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