Every year, we anticipate heat waves and call on the concerned officials to take measures before the fire season begins. But as usual, nobody heeds our calls and that’s why, Darb Akkar Association has taken it upon itself to secure a vehicle in order to combat forest fires.

The Association equipped and developed the vehicle and formed a team of volunteers that works on containing and extinguishing fires.

Ali Taleb, a volunteer, told Sawt Beirut International (SBI) reporter Ibrahim Fatfat, that this move comes “in light of the blazes that broke out in Akkar over the past few years. Last year, for instance, we lost nearly 500 hectares of green space within Akkar (…) and it is a very large area.”

Therefore, Taleb said, “Darb Akkar Association launched an initiative in 2020, through which we opened a donation campaign and managed to collect a sum of more than $21,000.” “With this amount, we equipped a vehicle for immediate action,” he said.

The initiative was launched to support the Civil Defense which is reeling from a shortage of equipment and total absence of the Lebanese State. “We do not take the Civil Defense’s role but rather we support it,” Taleb added.

We should always rely on individual initiatives and actions taken by the youth amidst the absence of the State and the corruption of all its sectors.