By bne Tehran bureau
Iran has deployed firefighting aircraft to combat increasing wildfires that have broken out in the western provinces of the country, the National Disaster Management Organisation of Iran announced, IRNA reported on June 13.
In response to the fires in the provinces of Khuzestan, Ilam, Kermanshah, and Lorestan, five helicopters and an Ilyushin firefighting aeroplane from the Iranian Red Crescent Society and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) aerospace force are currently engaged in firefighting and transporting personnel to inaccessible areas. Videos of men attempting to put out fires with twigs and whatever they have to hand have now circulated widely on social media in the country, forcing the temporary administration of Mohammad Mokbher to respond to the increasing challenges as temperatures continue to rise.
Disasters director Hossein Zafari said that the firefighting efforts are being conducted through ground and aerial operations, with the crisis management headquarters of the affected provinces actively participating.
Zafari also mentioned that while there has been progress in containing the fires in the mentioned provinces, there is still a risk of further outbreaks, especially in areas where the fire potential is forecasted to be high.
The fires, which began on June 12, have prompted authorities to issue warnings about the high potential for fire in various areas. Governor of Ilam province, Hassan Bahramnia, has asked the central government to provide better firefighting equipment to prevent future wildfires in his region. He also announced that strict measures will be taken against those responsible for causing the fires, with the collaboration of the judicial system.
In Dezful in the west of the country, firefighters and emergency workers finally contained wildfires in that area after 56 hours, in what has been described as 'unprecedented.' In that area, more than 50 teams were reportedly sent to remote rural areas to put out the fires sparked by record growth due to unprecedented rain in recent months.
Meanwhile, in Kerman, a team from the local fire service was called out to spontaneously combust trees in the city's Citadel Square. Initial investigations in that city said human error was to blame.
According to local reports, one of the causes of the fire was record amounts of lightning strikes in the region, causing runaway fires with southern winds, IRNA reported.
In another location, adverse weather conditions and frequent thunderstorms have led to fires in the villages of Kermanshah. Due to these conditions, agricultural fields in the villages of Galin and Ganjoura, located in Sarpol-e Zahab county, have been engulfed in flames.
Water scarcity is already a pressing issue in many regions of West and Central Asia, home to the Caspian and what remains of the Aral Sea, which has already almost entirely evaporated in part caused by increasing temperatures from climate change.
The lack of irrigation has already affected its agricultural production, a major source of foreign exchange earnings for the country, and the state is increasingly struggling to meet the domestic drinking water demand of the population.
Analysis of international data, released by Climate Central in November 2023, revealed that global temperatures have broken records over the past 12 months.
From November 2022 to October 2023, the Earth's average temperature exceeded pre-industrial levels by a staggering 1.3 degrees Celsius. This period is now recognised as the hottest year-long stretch ever recorded in history.
In a concerning trend, temperatures in 170 countries surpassed the 30-year norms during this time frame, exposing a staggering 7.8bn people – representing 99% of the world's population – to above-average warmth.
A comprehensive weather attribution analysis indicates that during this period, 5.7 billion people faced at least 30 days of above-average temperatures, which were made significantly more probable by the influence of climate change – reaching level-three on Climate Central's Climate Shift Index (CSI).
