Algeria’s Wildfires: Investigating the Causes, Identifying the Victims

Scientific and technical police teams from the National Gendarmerie have officially launched extensive field investigations, collecting evidence from the sites where the fires broke out in an effort to determine the actual causes of the blazes and establish the circumstances surrounding them in the affected provinces.

Teams from the scientific and technical police units of the National Institute of Criminal Evidence and Criminology, based in Bouchaoui, Algiers, have begun their fieldwork in coordination with officers from the units and brigades attached to the regional Gendarmerie groups in the affected provinces. The National Gendarmerie Command has mobilized all available material, technical and human resources to enable the teams to carry out their mission and gather all evidence that could help determine the causes behind the fires that broke out simultaneously in several provinces.

Under the supervision of institute experts, the teams will also work to identify the victims’ remains by collecting biological samples and comparing them with samples obtained from the victims’ families. The samples will be transported by air to the National Gendarmerie’s National Institute of Criminal Evidence and Criminology in Bouchaoui. A final report, accompanied by the physical evidence collected from the fire sites and backed by scientific expertise as well as spatial and temporal analysis, will subsequently be submitted to the judicial police services of the Gendarmerie and to the competent regional judicial authorities.

In the same context, sources told Echorouk that, since the fires broke out, the National Gendarmerie Command has established crisis cells at its headquarters in Algiers and at the Fifth Regional Gendarmerie Command in Constantine, as well as at the regional Gendarmerie groups in the provinces affected by the fires and in neighboring areas. Gendarmerie personnel also worked alongside Civil Protection officers, members of the People’s National Army, police officers and citizens to evacuate the injured, recover bodies and provide assistance in transporting them to hospitals.

Meanwhile, road security units organized and facilitated traffic, while preventing onlookers from accessing roads leading to the fire zones. Some roads damaged by the fires were also closed.

Special security formations were deployed to restore a sense of safety and calm, particularly in areas affected by the fires where residents had been forced to leave their homes. Gendarmerie personnel carried out both foot and vehicle patrols to reassure residents and protect their property.

For its part, the Ministry of National Defence confirmed that all its units remain on permanent alert and fully prepared to stand alongside citizens affected by the fires and contribute effectively to bringing the blazes completely under control.

In a statement, the ministry said that Army detachments and units continue their intensive field operations to support firefighting efforts in the provinces of Jijel and El Tarf, in the Fifth Military Region. The intervention is aimed at reinforcing the Civil Protection services and the Forestry Directorate as part of the national effort to contain the spread of the fires.

The ministry added that, in accordance with instructions from the High Command of the People’s National Army, all available human and material resources had been mobilized. This included deploying large numbers of personnel from units stationed in the affected areas and carrying out dozens of aerial firefighting sorties using aircraft operated by the Air Force. Numerous vehicles and bulldozers, fire engines, water tankers and ambulances were also deployed near the areas hit by the fires.

Meanwhile, the National Security services maintained a strong operational presence on the ground. Police officers were mobilized in the provinces affected by the fires to work alongside Civil Protection personnel in firefighting operations and in protecting citizens and their property.

Their role went beyond traffic and crowd-control duties. Police units deployed water-tanker trucks belonging to the riot-control forces, converting them into firefighting support vehicles in the field. These vehicles played an active role in cooling burning hotspots and creating protective firebreaks that prevented the flames from spreading into residential and urban areas and reaching vital facilities, including schools, health centers and municipal offices in the affected areas.