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Forest fires break out in Lebanon Swathes of Lebanon forest burnt
(1 day later)
Forest fires have broken out in several parts of Lebanon, destroying woodland and damaging houses. Forest fires have destroyed large areas of woodland across Lebanon, killing one woman and injuring dozens.
Fifteen people have been injured in the blazes, an official in Deir al-Qamar, south-east of Beirut, said. More than 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of forest have been lost. Officials have described the fires as the worst in a decade.
Fire-fighters backed by Lebanese Air Force helicopters have been deployed in the north of the country. Many of the blazes appear to be under control, but fires continue to blaze in the north near Qobeyyat and Andaqt.
Fires are also raging in Qobeyat and Andaqt, emergency officials say. Some schools have been forced to close. Italy, Cyprus and Jordan have dispatched helicopters to help battle the fires.
A woman died on Tuesday of smoke inhalation near Deir al-Qamar in the Shouf Mountains region.
Mounir Bou Ghanem, head of the Association for Forest Development and Conservation, said about 50 people, many of them volunteers from his agency, had been treated for minor respiratory problems.
Officials have warned that hot ashes could reignite, depending on wind conditions.
"The direct cause [of the fires] is negligence, not criminal," Mr Bou Ghanem told the AFP news agency. "Negligence in the sense that people start small fires to clear their land or something like that."
He warned that the forests destroyed in the fires would not regenerate naturally.
"A pine forest that burns down twice within a period of 10 years cannot produce any more cones and we lose these forests forever and we have quite big forests like that that were destroyed yesterday," Mr Bou Ghanem told AFP.