Thousands of palm, olive trees burn in Errachidia fires

A big fire broke out in the Ziz oasis in Ksar Jdid in the Aoufous area near Errachidia, burning more than 5000 of palm trees and 1000 olive trees, according to what local residents told Hespress Eng today.

Mohamed Rahmaoui, political activist in Tinghir Errachidia told Hespress Eng that’ the losses amounted to approximately between 5,000 and 6,000 palm trees and between 1,000 and 2,000 olive trees.

He said two people suffocated and were taken to Hospital.

Mohamed Rahmaoui described the scenes during a conversation with Hespress Eng, saying ‘I was in the forests yesterday, and I found all the olive farms burnt.”

“Farmers lost all their livelihood now,” he added.

He said high temepratures fueld by wind are the most likely causes of the fire.

Civil protection services, local inhabitants of the Aoufous area and canadair plans intervened to put out the fire between yesterday and today morning

‘The fires have been controlled, but there are still remnants of these fires that can return at any moment due to the wind ‘Mohamed Rahmaoui told Hespress Eng.

This is the fifth time during this week that fires break out in the area.

In Morocco, the peak fire season typically begins in late June and lasts around 17 weeks. Between August 24, 2020 and August 16, 2021, the country recorded 3,537 fire alerts, lost 41.0kha of relative tree cover, 0.1% more than the global total, according to Global Forest Watch figures.

The situation in Morocco reflects what’s happening in forests globally—from Siberia and the US to Greece and Algeria. The world is heating up so fast that in a decade’s time extreme weather will happen simultaneously with multiple climate disasters, such as droughts, floods, and storms, said the UN earlier this month.

Climate researchers are finding higher average temperatures increasing the length of the fire season and the number of places where fires can occur.