Algeria Wildfires Hospitalise Over 100, Damage 150 Homes

More than 100 people were hospitalised after wildfires reached nearly 150 homes in a small town in north-eastern Algeria, the country’s interior minister said on Wednesday.

The fires broke out on Tuesday in Seraidi, a town west of the city of Annaba surrounded by forests. Civil protection crews were still battling the blazes on Wednesday morning.

Interior Minister Said Sayoud told reporters at a local hospital that most of the hospitalised people were in a “stable and reassuring” condition, adding that more than 150 homes had been affected.

According to Sayoud, a major wildfire erupted on Tuesday in the forests surrounding Seraidi before spreading towards nearby urban areas.

He attributed the broader wave of fires to exceptionally high temperatures.

“The foresight and vigilance of both civilian and military authorities, together with the efforts of citizens, spared us a real catastrophe,” he said.

Algeria has been grappling with hundreds of wildfires for days, with at least six people dead in several provinces, according to the interior ministry.

Every summer, northern Algeria is struck by forest fires, a phenomenon exacerbated by drought and climate change.

Dozens of people have been killed in recent years and thousands of hectares of forest or farmland destroyed, along with numerous homes.