BEIRUT – A heatwave gripping areas in north and northwestern Syria has sparked several fires, killing and injuring local people, including several children, the civil defence group White Helmets said on Wednesday.
The fires are putting the lives of children and the elderly living in refugee camps at risk, it said.
Raed Saleh, the head of the White Helmets, which operates in Syrian opposition areas, said so far this month, fires had resulted in the death of three children and injured eight people, including two children.
“The number of fires has increased this July in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo,” he told German news agency (dpa).
He said White Helmet teams responded in the first 18 days of July to more than 280 fires.
“Some 120 of the fires were on agricultural lands, 53 at civilian homes, and 16 at refugees camps,” he said.
Saleh warned that the rise in the number of fires is dangerous to the environment and adds to the suffering of civilians who continue to experience daily shellings by the Syrian government forces and their Russian allies.
Abdel Salam Mohammed, the head of a displacement camp in Maaret Masreen near Idlib in northwest Syria, said high temperatures had affected children and the elderly.
“Most of our tents do not have isolation to protect from the heat in the summer or cold in the winter. They are old.”
Temperatures are currently at 36 degrees Celsius, with temperatures in the region around Idlib expected to rise to over 40 degrees by the weekend, locals said. – Bernama
