00:00and moving on to north africa now where morocco is battling a major forest fire in its north
00:11at least eight aircraft and 450 personnel have been deployed to fight the fire that has devastated
00:19around 500 hectares of forests and fields morocco's forest agency has said that this
00:26is the largest fire of the year with an exceptional spread of flames due to the rugged terrain and
00:33strong winds the authorities say though the fire is now mostly under control they are still fighting
00:40to extinguish it there is only one remaining outbreak at the provincial level we are currently
00:47tackling it there are ground teams made up of different units but there is also considerable
00:52support from three canadaire aircraft and four royal canadian mounted police turbo thrush aircraft
00:57as well as canadaire aircraft from the canadian air force the current situation is improving
01:02we hope to contain the fire as soon as possible
01:05in parts of the sheshowan region which is home to more than 400 000 people the fire approached houses
01:21petrol pumps and the center of the town of der dara now residents of hilltop villages armed with buckets
01:30were seen assisting the firefighters fire fighting operations near the tourist city of sheshowan have
01:36succeeded in controlling three of the four main hot spots however reports say that hot and dry winds
01:45were still fanning the embers near the city a separate fire near the city of tetuan was also brought
01:52under control on wednesday like other mediterranean countries morocco has experienced a fire in the
02:00province of chawan a fire that can be described as significant in comparison to other fires we have
02:06seen this year where the areas affected were very very limited this fire burned through nearly 500
02:12hectares of forest making it the largest fire of the year
02:15authorities have opened an investigation to determine the cause of the fire
02:28morocco as with much of western and southern europe has been gripped by intense heat waves this summer
02:35compounded by strong hot desert winds from the sahara according to the drought index of the eu's
02:43copernicus satellite monitoring program the fire danger across the entire mediterranean basin
02:50is rated extreme to very extreme from the 11th to the 17th of august with particularly high risk in
02:58northern morocco the trigger climate change extreme heat worsened by climate change has led
03:05to increasingly frequent forest fires rising temperatures turn dry fields and forests into a
03:11tinderbox where even a small spark can ignite massive blazes prolonged heat waves drier landscapes and
03:19more unpredictable weather including stronger winds together have intensified the extreme fire weather
03:26especially in north africa and southern europe while authorities fight fires in north morocco
03:33there's a bigger battle that the world currently faces that battle against climate change
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