TIZI OUZOU, Algeria: In the mountains of northern Algeria, Mouloud Temzi inspects the aftermath of this summer’s wildfires: fig and olive trees burnt to husks, chicken coops twisted to cinders, empty apiaries and paths strewn with ash.
But the deputy mayor is grateful for one thing: no people died this wildfire season and that means a lot in a region where scores have been killed in the rampant blazes of recent years.
Five villages were affected in Ait Mahmoud — a commune of around 7,700 people in northern Algeria — but not a single home was lost, and Temzi puts this down to a rapid mobilization of the country’s newly beefed-up firefighting forces.
“We have learned how to act during fires, and now we handle them the way the Japanese deal with earthquakes,” said Temzi.
Better equipment and smarter policies, along with airplanes that can douse flames from above, are all part of a nationwide campaign that has already paid off, inhabitants of Tizi Ouzou told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as the burning season came to a close in August.
Sitting beneath a tree in the sleepy mountaintop village of Tagragra in Ait Mahmoud, retiree Cherif Hakimi is all too aware of the stakes.
“Last time (in 2021), the fires reached the houses, but not this time. Thankfully, the firefighters controlled it before it got here. If the fire had reached us, we would have been finished,” said the 69-year-old.
Wildfires have become an unwelcome staple of arid Algerian summers in recent years.
Temperature spikes caused by climate change, along with the hot and dry Sirocco wind that blows off the Sahara, human negligence and sometimes even arson, have coalesced to create devastating blazes.
Villagers used to fight the flames using whatever tools they had to hand — but buckets of water, twigs and water hoses were of little use in the face of an inferno.
That is why the government made it an urgent priority to revamp its firefighting measures, putting an emphasis on new equipment, a change to the law and greater public awareness.
DRONES, AI AND A NEW LAW
In the forested mountains of Kabylie, parched underbrush makes for easy tinder and renders the area vulnerable to fire.
In 2021, during a blistering heatwave and extended drought, 100 wildfires spread across the province of Tizi Ouzou, an area spanning around 3,000 square kilometers (1,158 square miles).
At least 90 people were killed, tens of thousands of acres of forest were devoured by flames, olive groves turned to ash, and countless remote villages and farms burned to the ground.
Alongside the immediate toll, there was a long-term cost to tally with reforestation likely to take decades and new setbacks each summer as smaller blazes broke out.
In 2023, at least 34 people were killed and several hundred injured in Bejaia, a province neighboring Tizi Ouzo.
But this year was different, despite crippling summer heat that fanned flames across the Mediterranean region, igniting fierce forest fires from Portugal to Greece to north Africa.
In January, a new law was passed that imposes life imprisonment on those caught deliberately starting forest fires.
The new law combines different articles into one dedicated law that carries harsher penalties.
In April, Tassili Travail Aerien, part of state-owned Tassili Airlines, said it had added 12 firefighting aircraft to its fleet.
That came on top of the 340 new firefighting trucks and 40 water tanker trucks added to the national forest services over the past two years.
Specific measures were also taken in Tizi Ouzou, ever vulnerable due to its mountainous terrain and thick forest cover that makes it prone to wildfires but also difficult for firefighters to penetrate when blazes break out.
Local officials built a landing pad for heavy-lift helicopters that transport water tanks and watchtowers for the forestry service. Their staff also cut paths through thick forests to make it easier for firefighters.
A drone and a high-resolution camera using artificial intelligence were deployed to monitor hot spots, according to Yazid Belkalem, head of the agriculture committee in the People’s Provincial Assembly, an elected body that monitors the performance of the local authorities.
Belkalem told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that there was still insufficient equipment in civil protection centers and sub-offices of the forestry department, and that his committee had recommended they get more resources.
Altogether, about 100 million Algerian dinars ($756,000) were allocated for drone use countrywide.
And the Algerian Red Crescent launched a disaster management unit in Tizi Ouzou — a 45-strong team of doctors, psychologists and paramedics — to intervene at pace and support the civil defense forces in evacuating the injured.
Local committees across Tizi Ouzou can coordinate rescue efforts more efficiently by sharing news on WhatsApp then calling on the unit for its help, said M’hend Allilat, the unit’s coordinator.
“The local committee close to the fire sends two to four members to go to the fire site to make an initial assessment: is it close to the houses or far away? Is it big or small? Are the firefighters present at the scene? Have the forest services intervened?” Allilat said.
INCREASED RISK
Coming up with a new best practices is key given climate change is making wildfires ever more likely and intense.
“The weather has become hotter, water shortages are increasing, and certain types of forests (cedar) are dying at a significant rate in the Aures region (in northeastern Algeria),” said Arezki Derridj, an ecologist at the University of Tizi Ouzou.
Because dead trees are more flammable, Derridj said flames spread faster, further sped by wind.
Another major factor is urban migration.
As Algerians move into cities, fewer people are left to manage farmland, Derridj said, turning fields into a tinderbox.
“The villages have been emptied of their residents, often leaving only the elderly and a few unemployed youth. Fields and orchards are no longer cultivated, so clearing them is rare,” said Derridj.
However, those Algerians still living in rural areas are now far more proactive, summoning help at the first sign of smoke.
As he sat in his office in Ait Mahmoud, Temzi’s phone rang – another call about another fire that local residents had reported.
For those who call the mountains of Ait Mahmoud home, vigilance is paramount.
“My family’s fields have been burned four times: in 2012, 2017, 2021, and most recently in 2024,” said Ghilas Mahiout, a local shopkeeper in his 30s.
“Everything is gone, we are exhausted.”
This piece is published in collaboration with Egab. ($1 = 132.2790 Algerian dinars)
