Strong fires spread in different parts of Lebanon Forcing some residents to flee their homes in the middle of the night as the flames reached residential areas in villages south Beirut
Fire engines were overwhelmed by the flames in the region early Tuesday, forcing the Interior Ministry to send riot police engines equipped with water cannons to help.
Two small aircraft were sent from the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus and are helping in putting out the fires.
A heat wave hitting the region and strong winds helped intensify the fires in pine forests around Lebanon and three provinces in neighboring Syria.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that if the fires turn out to be intentional those behind it "will pay a price."
The fires are part of a brutal worldwide fire season that has also seen blazes in Brazil, the forests of the Congo Basin in Africa, and Siberia. In Lebanon, an estimated 3,700 acres burned and thousands of people from southern Lebanese towns, like Damour and the Chouf region, were forced to evacuate.
The Red Cross in Lebanon said 18 people have been hospitalized and 88 received emergency medical care. One person is confirmed dead as a result of the fire.
“We shouldn’t be surprised — no one was prepared for this,” said George Mitri, a professor and director of the Land and Natural Resources Program at Lebanon’s University of Balamand and an expert in forest fires, in an interview with Vox. He estimated around 200 fires have broken out in total.
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