Forest fires break out in Targua N'touchkha, South of Morocco

After the start of forest fires in the north of the country, today fires broke out in the South.

A fire broke out on Sunday, July 16, at several points at the Targua N’touchkha palm grove, located in the mountainous area of the province of Inzegane Ait Melloul pushing for the evacuation of some inhabitants.

According to l Hespress sources, this fire broke out in the Targua N’touchka palm grove, near the weekly market and several homes located in the heart of farms.

The fire led to the destruction of vast expanses of trees and forage crops.

Faced with this situation, the inhabitants of the region sent emergency calls to the local authorities, the civil protection services and the Royal Gendarmerie, asking for rapid intervention.

Neighboring residents, for their part, were forced to evacuate, accompanied by their livestock.

According to Mounir Sabour, an associative activist, the reasons for the fire are still unknown, stressing that the inhabitants have requested the urgent intervention of the competent authorities and neighboring municipalities to extinguish the flames in order to avoid the scenario of spread to other areas.

He also noted that the same oasis was affected by similar fires, resulting in significant material losses and requiring considerable efforts to control them.

“We hope that the situation will not reach this level today,” added the activist.

In addition, the governor of Inezgane-Ait Melloul province reacted quickly by giving strict instructions to all the services concerned to mobilize all the human and material resources necessary to extinguish the fire.

At the same time, preliminary investigations were opened to determine the causes of its initiation.

It should be remembered that from January 1 to July 10, 2023, a total of 182 fire starts were recorded, affecting an area of 1251 hectares of forests.

About 54% of these burned spaces are composed of secondary species and herbaceous formations, according to the National Water and Forest Agency (ANEF).

Therefore, the summer monitoring and intervention system remains at its maximum level of mobilization, because the coming days and weeks represent a period of high risk of fire spread.