At each end of Mediterranean ‘hotspot’, Red Cross Red Crescent assists with wildfire impacts
By the Climate Centre
The IFRC this week issued a humanitarian cash grant of 130,000 Swiss francs to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to assist its operation after the “massive wildfires” that broke out in north-eastern Latakia and Tartous governorates at the very end of June.
“These devastating fires continue to consume substantial tracts of agricultural and forested land,” the SARC said in a statement Sunday on X, “directly impacting numerous villages and residential areas [and] depriving hundreds of families of their established livelihoods.”
The response faced “considerable operational challenges, including difficult terrain, persistent strong winds, and the dangerous presence of unexploded ordnance within the fire zones.”
Syria declared a national emergency last Friday and requested international aid, prompting firefighting support from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
The six-month Red Crescent operation supported IFRC-DREF by will focus on aid for firefighters and displaced families, and medical services.
‘Difficult terrain, persistent strong winds, unexploded ordnance’
Over six months, the operation will also deploy mobile water-tanks, promote disaster risk reduction, and enhance community resilience through awareness and preparedness initiatives encompassing 25,000 people.
Similar operations last year and the year before, both also worth 500,000 CHF, covered Latakia, Tartous and three other governorates. “The communities affected by the recent fires were already exhausted due to complicated reasons, including the effects of the continuous Syrian crisis, climate change, and the last earthquake,” IFRC-DREF said in 2023. Wildfires represent a significant hazard in Syria and have become “a recurring annual event”, it added last year.
Meanwhile, the French Red Cross in Marseille is providing one of four emergency shelters at the request of the city after wildfires reached its northern outskirts.
Some 700 firefighters were fighting the blaze at one point, although it was reported to have died down overnight Tuesday-Wednesday.
With wildfires raging in Greece, Türkiye and other parts of Europe earlier this week, the IFRC network has mobilized to support emergency responders and vulnerable communities, with its Europe region office speaking of “an urgent need to shift from reactive response to proactive preparedness.”
The entire Mediterranean region has become a “wildfire hotspot”, European Commission scientists have said, and the “fire risk is expected to further increase due to climate change. Europe’s wildfire season will increasingly be characterised by massive fires that claim lives and burn areas requiring longer recovery periods”.
(This story was corrected on 10 July to put the new IFRC-DREF grant to Syria at 130,000 CHF, not 500,000.)
Red Crescent volunteers assist firefighters in the country’s north-east this week, when for at least the third year running it faced serious humanitarian impacts from wildfires. (Photo: SARC via X.)