A major forest fire tore through the Bab El Qarn woodland near Bab Taza, in Morocco’s northern province of Chefchaouen, late Friday, consuming roughly 110 hectares of maritime pine and oak forest within hours. No casualties have been reported, though the ecological toll in this densely wooded corner of the Rif is expected to be severe.
Local authorities scrambled into action almost immediately, placing the province on maximum alert under the direct supervision of provincial governor Zakaria Hachlaf. By evening, 362 personnel had been deployed to the fire front — among them 160 troops from the Royal Armed Forces, 50 auxiliary security officers, 45 agents from the national water and forestry agency, 30 national relief volunteers, 25 civil protection officers and a dozen local officials, reinforced by around 40 residents who joined the effort from nearby villages.
Steep, rugged terrain slowed ground crews trying to reach the most active flare-ups, forcing firefighters to rely on water tankers and light intervention vehicles while pushing for heavier air support. Canadair water bombers flew more than 40 sorties over the burning hillsides, dropping load after load in an effort to keep the blaze from spreading further into the surrounding pine stands.
As of this report, containment operations were still underway, with crews racing to bring the fire fully under control before darkness made aerial drops impossible. Moroccan authorities have opened an investigation into the fire’s origin, a standard procedure whenever a blaze of this scale breaks out in the kingdom’s forests.
The incident is the latest reminder of how exposed the Rif’s forest cover has become to wildfires in recent years, as hotter, drier summers and warm winds accelerate the spread of flames across terrain that is often difficult for crews to access. Morocco has invested heavily in firefighting capacity over the past several seasons — expanding its aerial fleet and creating mobile intervention units — yet each new fire underscores how fragile this natural heritage remains against a shifting climate, and how much still depends on the speed and coordination of the response once the first flames appear.
