The Algerian presidency announced the death of 25 soldiers while trying to save citizens from the fires in the states of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia, at a time when the Tunisian authorities continued to put out fires in several regions, including Ain Draham, on the border with Algeria.
"I received the news of the martyrdom of 25 members of the People's National Army, after they succeeded in rescuing more than 100 citizens from the blazing fires, in the mountains of Bejaia and Tizi Ouzou," President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said on his Twitter account.
Today, Tuesday, the General Directorate of Civil Protection reported that the number of fires has risen to 73 registered across 14 states, the most important of which are in Jijel, Bouira, Setif, Khenchela, Guelma and Bejaia.
The fires killed 7 people, and the local administration of civil protection in Tizi Ouzou said that it had put out 14 fires in the forests of the state, and that civil protection reinforcements had arrived from 9 neighboring states, and two helicopters to help put out the remaining fires.
Al-Jazeera correspondent Atef Qadadra reported that there is a new fire in the outskirts of Annaba on the Tunisian border, indicating the difficulty of confronting this number of fires despite the great capabilities announced by the authorities, including army helicopters.
Interior Minister Kamal Beljoud said that a "hateful criminal hand" against his country was behind the forest fires that broke out simultaneously on Monday in 14 states.
He added in a press statement on the sidelines of his visit to Tizi Ouzou, "It is impossible for these fires that erupted at the same time to be normal. There is a malevolent criminal hand that wants to destroy Algeria behind this act, as was the case in other states earlier."
Youssef Ould Mohamed, a forestry official in the state of Tizi Ouzou (150 km east of the capital), said in a statement to the radio yesterday evening that he does not rule out the existence of a criminal act behind the forest fires in the region.
The radio reported that some houses had turned to ashes, noting that 3 suspects had been arrested for setting fire to a forest in the state of Medea (80 km west of the capital).
In Tunisia, the authorities announced that they had put out a fire that destroyed hundreds of hectares of trees in the Kasserine Governorate (west), and efforts are still continuing to extinguish two other fires in the Bizerte Governorate, in the north of the country.
Head of the Forestry Department in Kasserine Yamen Hakki told Anadolu Agency that today, a fire that broke out in Mount Semmama in the governorate has been completely brought under control.
He explained that the fire caused the destruction of hundreds of hectares (one hectare equals one thousand square meters) of Aleppo pine, wreath, juniper and allied trees.
Two days ago, the Civil Protection in Kasserine evacuated families from the areas adjacent to the foot of the closed military zone in Mount Samama, following the outbreak of a massive fire on August 5 that engulfed residential communities.
Estimates of the outbreak of such fires are due to the high temperatures that Tunisia has been witnessing for several days, with the highest reaching 49 degrees in some areas, according to the National Institute of Meteorology (Government).