This is an “important” fire, an informed source informed to AFP said on Wednesday by specifying that “Canadair is currently bombing the area to try to contain the flames”.
This source has not been able to give elements on the extent of the affected areas, the damage, nor any victims or evacuations.
According to the information site LE360, two Canadair led rotations in the province of Chefchaouen, which has more than 400,000 inhabitants, including nearly 50,000 in the city, “despite strong gusts of wind”.
Large ravaged surfaces
The media reports, citing local sources, which the fire has ravaged “vast” wooded areas between Bab Taza and Derdara, and caused “significant damage” to orchards and agricultural fields near Karankha, before winning a neighboring forest under the effect of winds that have been riding the north for two days.
More than 20 fires and the most difficult 24 hours of the period: Greece in the face of very violent fires because of the wind and drought
Videos on the internet show a sky darkened by thick plumes of smoke, lines of common fire on the mountains and residents fighting against the flames using buckets of water in a region with rugged relief.
On social networks and in media like Morocco Hebdo, other fire starts have been reported near Tétouan and Tangier, two other tourist destinations in the north of the country, struck by a persistent drought since 2018 and currently prey to a heat wave accompanied by Chergui, according to the General Directorate of Meteorology (DGM).
In Belgium, several regions are conducive to forest fires, but “fire does not start on its own, it takes a human trigger”
Chergui is a warm, dry and often very strong wind, which blows from the east or southeast on Morocco, mainly from the Sahara.