Firetrucks, bulldozers, and tractors in Raqqa ready to protect crops from fires

Raqqa- North-Press Agency

Ahmad al-Hassan

On Monday, the First Response Team of the Raqqa Civil Council showed the preparation for the 2020 harvest season, which included fire trucks, bulldozers, and tillage machineries to protect crops from fires.

The head of the First Response Team Yasser al-Khamis told North-Press that this year they prepared 15 firetrucks for the harvest, in addition to preparing a number of bulldozers and tractors and providing them with tillage machineries to isolate agricultural lands in the event of any fire.

Regarding the distribution of the machineries during the harvest season and the mechanism of their work, al-Khamis indicated that four points were specified for the machineries to station during the season, distributed in the countryside of Raqqa, which is the point of al-Kassrat, south of Raqqa, the point of Sahlabiya, 25km west of the city of Raqqa, the point of al-Karama, 30km east of the city of Raqqa, and the point of Hazima, 25km north of the city, in addition to the fifth point inside the city "to support the countryside in case of necessity.

Al-Khamis added that each point was equipped with a number of required machines for extinguishing fires, and workers were trained and prepared to "be able able to put out fires in the shortest possible time."

Last year, the First Response Team in Raqqa managed to extinguish the fire of more than four thousand hectares of agricultural lands in the countryside of Raqqa, according to al-Khamis.

Last year, the incidence of crop fires increased in the areas of northeastern Syria, where the losses reached hundreds of agricultural hectares. The reasons for these fires weren't clear, and they occurred mainly in the northern countryside of Raqqa, the countryside of Hasakah and the countryside of Kobani.