Algerian civil protection services recorded 159 fires between Thursday and Friday morning, affecting forests, jungles, scrublands, agricultural crops, and palm groves. Intervention teams managed to extinguish 141 of them, while extinguishing and cooling operations continue on 18 fires across 12 provinces.

Civil protection stated that the fires still being extinguished and cooled are distributed across the provinces of Annaba (1 fire), Souk Ahras (3), Skikda (1), Bouira (1), El Tarf (2), Jijel (1), Constantine (1), Béjaïa (2), Saïda (1), Mila (3), Médéa (1), and Tizi Ouzou (1).

In Annaba province, treatment and cooling operations continue in the municipality of Seraïdi, Bouzizi area, after the fire was brought under control, with some hotspots and embers remaining.

In Skikda province, intervention teams in the municipality of Ain Kechra continue to treat remaining embers and extinguish residual hotspots.

In Bouira, operations to treat hotspots and cool down continue in the municipality of El Hachimia.

In Saïda province, some fire hotspots are still being treated in the Sidi Saâda area, part of the municipality of Doui Thabet.

In Souk Ahras, civil protection teams in the municipality of Ouled Driss, Khaboucha hamlet, continue extinguishing hotspots and cooling embers. Meanwhile, in Constantine, treatment and cooling operations continue on hotspots in the municipality of Ibn Ziad, while the fire recorded in the municipality of Constantine has been completely extinguished.

Meanwhile, civil protection units, supported by various human and material resources, continue extinguishing, cooling, and field monitoring operations to prevent re-ignition of flames, while monitoring the situation across the affected provinces until all fires are fully extinguished.

For his part, Jamal Touahria, Director General of Forests, revealed that his services managed to extinguish all forest fires recorded during the current season, with cooling operations continuing on some hotspots to anticipate any re-ignition. He explained that the season saw 445 fires requiring more than 1,500 field interventions, a figure that reflects, according to him, the responsiveness and effectiveness of early intervention mechanisms in containing the flames.

Touahria identified the eastern provinces, led by Skikda, followed by Annaba and Guelma, as the areas most affected by fires this season, attributing this to several factors, most notably the dense vegetation cover resulting from winter rains.

He also pointed to the role of heatwaves and winds, as well as the spread of dry grass, in accelerating the spread of flames between forest areas.

Touahria attributed the majority of recorded fires to human negligence behaviors, such as lighting fires without supervision or neglecting to clean around homes and roads. At the same time, he confirmed cases of a criminal nature and others related to purely natural factors. He said that specialized teams have undergone training in technical investigations, enabling them to accurately determine the fire's point of origin and time of outbreak using modern means and techniques.