ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two volunteers suffered severe burns while trying to put out a fire that has raged for two days in eastern Sulaimani province and burned thousands of dunams of forest. “The fires started behind Halala and Maso villages. Our village is a little far from there but my son and Mr. Alan Yousif went to aid the [fire fighting] teams and were burned in the flames,” Abdullah Hussein, the father of one of the injured, told Rudaw on Friday. The fire has been burning for two days in Sulaimani’s Penjwen district. “Since yesterday, a large fire has been burning in the areas around Halala and Maso villages and as a result thousands of dunams of land have burnt,” the district mayor of Penjwen, Hemen Ibrahim, told Rudaw on Friday. “Yesterday the fire teams and volunteers managed to put out the fires but today fires started again in the same area,” he added, confirming that the two volunteers were injured. Hussein said his son suffered burns to 74% of his body and Alan Yousif to 56% of his body, but is in stable condition. “There are not many intensive care units in this hospital but the doctors are trying to help them according to their capabilities,” he said. Recent extreme heat and dry conditions have significantly increased wildfire activity in the region. A member of the forest police and a volunteer lost their lives battling a fire that burnt thousands of dunams of land in Halabja earlier this month. Six others were injured. A dunam equals 2,500 square meters. Nearly half of the Kurdistan Region’s forests have been lost over the past 50 to 60 years to factors such as conflict and climate change, according to the Environment Protection and Improvement Board. Limited resources, inaccessible terrain, and dangers posed by legacy landmines make fighting the wildfires difficult.
