Tunisia – Beja: Seven fires in cereal fields since beginning of month

Beja registered 7 blazes in cereal fields between May 1 and 27. Most in the delegation of Medjez El-Bab, on an area estimated at 13 hectares, including 8 hectares of wheat and 5 hectares of barley.

The regional director of civil protection, Brigadier General Moez Ben Khalifa, told today, Wednesday, May 29, 2024, TAP, that the enactment of a fire protection plan for cereal fields to guarantee the harvest season has been launched.

Civil Protection carried out 84 inspection and control visits to grain collection centres and 15 interventions in random dumps which are deemed one of the causes of the fires. It likewise made 13 visits to agricultural rehabilitation and development companies which include significant areas of large-scale cultivation. This is to provide recommendations on fire prevention and awareness and to familiarize 40 of their workers with the use of firefighting equipment.

He added that, as part of the same plan, 120 farmers and residents of the regions of Kharouba, Testour and Medjez El-Bab were trained and sensitized, for three days, to the protection of fires in cereal fields, as part of awareness days organized by the Regional Commission of Agriculture and its partners, and he reported that a seasonal fire-fighting centre would be opened in the coming days north of Beja.