The authorities accuse "hidden hands" ... deaths and suffocation of fires on the Syrian coast

Dozens of fires continued to spread in most villages on the Syrian coast, after they caught fire yesterday, leaving two people dead, without the firefighting teams being able to control them.

Hikmat Saqr, head of the Peasants' Union in the Syrian province of Latakia, said, "The outbreak of more than 30 fires in most of the villages on the Syrian coast, simultaneously, is not a coincidence, and that there are hidden hands behind the fire."

The Ministry of Health announced that the Qardaha Hospital had been evacuated of patients after the fire reached its walls, noting that the fires yesterday resulted in the death of two people and the injury of more than 20 cases of suffocation in the Lattakia and Tartous governorates.

Since this morning, Syrian state television has been broadcasting scenes from the areas of fires, where it said that firefighting teams continue to work to extinguish them, and they have spread in hundreds of hectares in the countryside of the provinces of Latakia and Tartous in the west, and Homs in the center.

Yesterday evening, Minister of Agriculture Muhammad Hassan Qatna spoke with the local "Sham FM" radio, about "45 fires in Lattakia and 33 in Tartous" and other fires in Homs.

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(@spookysofian) October 10, 2020

It is likely that this will be the first time that Syria witnesses "this number of fires in one day."

The Latakia Fire Brigade said on its Facebook page, "We are facing the largest series of fires that the Lattakia Governorate has witnessed over the years."

The fires also forced several families to flee after the fire approached their homes, according to what the head of the rapid ambulance system in the province, Luay Saeed, told a local radio station.

Activists on social media circulated pictures and videos showing the fires attached to the tag "Syria is Burning".

There were also appeals to parents asking for help.

Fires are frequent in the summer in the Syrian forests and woods, and last September, huge fires broke out in large areas in separate areas in the countryside of Hama and Latakia.

It is noteworthy that in neighboring Lebanon, since Thursday, more than 100 fires have erupted in several areas in the south, north and east of the country and the mountainous Chouf region, according to official sources.