‘We belong to this land’: Syrians navigate landmines to battle wildfires

Qastal Maaf, Latakia, Syria – Abu Jameel Muhammed’s weathered hands, blackened by soot and ash, trembled arsenic helium patted the scorched world astir what remained of his beloved olive tree. At 80, the Syrian elder had survived a brutal civilian war, economical collapse, and planetary sanctions – but the show of his charred courtyard companion reduced him to tears.

“Villagers rescued maine arsenic flames approached my location … I survived, but my lone girl connected this onshore was consumed by fire. It was the past happening near for maine here,” Abu Jameel said haltingly, his dependable breaking arsenic helium referred to the cherished histrion that had graced his tiny location successful the Qastal Maaf country of Syria’s coastal Latakia state for decades.

The aged antheral lives unsocial successful what has go the epicentre of wildfires that person ravaged Latakia for much than a week, surviving connected wealth sent by daughters who joined and moved overseas – a communal communicative successful a state wherever economical devastation has forced millions to question opportunities elsewhere.

“My location was the smallest but sweetest successful the village… I surrounded it with roseate bushes and had 1 precious olive histrion successful the courtyard. Now each is gone,” helium told Al Jazeera, aft the blaze consumed overmuch of his colony and forced thousands into displacement.

The country astir Abu Jameel’s destroyed location reflects a broader catastrophe unfolding crossed Syria’s Mediterranean coast. Wildfires person consumed much than 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres) of onshore implicit the past week, according to Syria’s Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management, Raed al-Saleh, who spoke to Al Jazeera by telephone from the beforehand lines.

A scenery transformed by fire

The steep, constrictive roads starring to villages successful Latakia’s highlands are covered successful layers of achromatic mud and ash, making entree treacherous for exigency vehicles warring the wildfires, which person continued contempt the champion efforts of the Syrian Civil Defense.

The aerial is heavy with acrid fume that burns the pharynx and stings the eyes, portion the once-green mountainsides person been transformed into a moonscape of charred world and skeletal histrion remains.

Civil Defense unpaid Muhammed Baradei, 32, emerged from a cordoned-off country successful Qastal Maaf during a uncommon interruption from battling the flames.

His azygous was stained achromatic by ash and humidity, and beads of sweat mixed with the soot covering his forehead and forearms.

“I cancelled my permission erstwhile fires started adjacent Latakia. I came from Idlib state to help,” Baradei said, describing a astir 100km (62-mile) travel that would person been unthinkable during Syria’s civilian war, arsenic it meant crossing the enactment betwixt the authorities of erstwhile President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition.

(Al Jazeera)

“We faced unexploded ordnance from past conflicts, steep terrain and shifting winds. Crews from aggregate provinces contained galore blistery spots, but caller fires kept igniting.”

The inferno, which broke retired connected July 2, has been fuelled by precocious temperatures reaching astir 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and strong, adust winds diagnostic of Mediterranean summers.

But this year’s fires transportation peculiar value for Syria, marking the archetypal large earthy catastrophe effect since the autumn of longtime dictator al-Assad, and the authorities his begetter established much than 50 years ago, successful December.

Landmines ignite fires

Beyond the contiguous challenges posed by steep terrain and unpredictable winds, firefighting teams look a uniquely Syrian hazard: the deadly bequest of much than a decennary of conflict.

“One of our top challenges was encountering unexploded ordnance and remnants of war,” said Wesam Zeidan, 29, a Civil Defense unpaid who drove from Hama province, acold to the southeast of Latakia, to articulation the firefighting efforts. “These posed sedate risks, forcing america to enactment with utmost caution and delaying entree to affected zones.”

According to the United Nations, Syria remains 1 of the world’s astir contaminated countries successful presumption of explosive remnants of war, with an estimated 11.5 cardinal radical surviving successful areas affected by explosive hazards.

The UN besides estimates that determination are 300,000 landmines inactive dispersed crossed Syria, acceptable to beryllium ignited by radical unknowingly mounting them off. Just betwixt December and June, 369 radical were killed arsenic a effect of what the UN presumption “explosive ordnance-related accidents”, including landmines and different explosive devices near down by the war.

These explosives tin besides beryllium acceptable disconnected by fires raging successful their vicinity. The hidden dangers, scattered crossed the scenery during years of fighting, present complicate each facet of the firefighting response.

Minister al-Saleh, who joined teams connected the beforehand lines, described the standard of harm to Syria’s forests arsenic “heart-wrenching”. According to a connection from the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management, astatine slightest 12 radical person been injured successful the firefighting efforts: 10 volunteers suffered terrible exhaustion, respiratory distress, fractures oregon contusions, portion 2 civilians sustained insignificant burns.

“During my tract visits, I saw tremendous efforts to prevention Syria’s forests. Yet challenges turn with aggravated winds and buried landmines,” al-Saleh stated, highlighting the intersection of earthy catastrophe and struggle bequest that defines overmuch of Syria’s modern challenges.

Years of mounting occurrence risk

Syria has grappled with progressively terrible yearly wildfires that person stretched the country’s sanctions-hit resources bladed adjacent arsenic they were already strained by much than a decennary of conflict.

A firefighter astatine the tract of a wildfire successful Qastal Maaf, Latakia, connected July 5, 2025 [Ahmad Fallaha/EPA]

The 2020 fires were the worst ever recorded successful Syria’s history, consuming tens of thousands of hectares crossed aggregate provinces.

This past experience, Baradei noted, drove villagers to evacuate promptly arsenic flames approached their homes. “This importantly lowered the anticipation of casualties,” helium said. However, the dispersed quality of small, sometimes unofficial settlements scattered passim the highlands has hampered firefighting efforts, helium explained.

Zeidan said dense forests and a deficiency of firebreaks person worsened the spread. The lack of firebreaks – vegetation-free zones intentionally created wrong forests to artifact wildfire dispersed and supply information areas for crushed crews – has been attributed to years of governmental neglect.

“No sooner bash we extinguish 1 occurrence than different ignites. Due to the adust season, unprecedented heatwaves and aggravated upwind speeds, caller blistery spots support erupting,” Zeidan said, his exhaustion evident aft days of round-the-clock firefighting.

Wind speeds accrued dramatically connected the 2nd time of the fires, prompting aggregate Syria Civil Defense centres and firefighting units from respective provinces to mobilise. While they initially controlled galore blistery spots, flames had dispersed to caller areas by the pursuing morning, creating a rhythm of containment and reignition that has defined the past week.

‘Now the concern is different’

The alteration successful Syria’s governmental scenery has fundamentally altered the firefighting response, according to volunteers and officials. During the 2011-2024 civilian war, residents from opposition-controlled areas couldn’t participate government-held provinces owed to information concerns and subject checkpoints.

“Before the Assad authorities was toppled, we couldn’t sojourn these forests. We didn’t attraction that overmuch erstwhile we saw akin quality of fires successful past summers,” Baradei explained. “But present the concern is different. We are present and we person to bash something.”

This newfound unity has mobilised firefighting teams from crossed Syria’s Civil Defense and Forestry Department. Syrian, Turkish, Jordanian and Lebanese craft hover supra the blazes, providing aerial enactment for containment operations – a level of practice that would person been intolerable nether the erstwhile government’s planetary isolation.

Despite the threats posed by buried landmines and unexploded ordnance scattered crossed the scenery from years of conflict, Baradei said morale among Civil Defense teams remains high. “We are acutely alert of however unsafe these wildfires are for Syria,” helium said. “These forests are portion of our shared heritage. This is precisely what drives america … due to the fact that we each beryllium to this land.”

FIrefighters conflict the blazes successful the forests of Syria’s al-Frunloq earthy reserve, successful Latakia [Courtesy Syrian Civil Defense]

This portion was published successful collaboration with Egab.