By Ahmed Elumami.
Tripoli, 28 May 2013:
Fires broke out again this afternoon in woodland in Cyrenaica’s Jebel Akhdar. It is reported to . . .[restrict]have affected more than one thousand hectares in the Wasita district, some six kilometres from Beida.
“No one has been hurt so far but we can’t estimate the scale of losses because the fire is still burning,” Mukhtar Ihbaish, a member of Beida Local Council, told the Libya Herald.
The council says it had contacted the Foreign Minister, Mohamed Abdulaziz, asking him to call the Italian embassy for help in extinguishing the fire. Italian water bomber aircraft have twice recently been called in to extinguish woodland fires in the area.
Weather condtions, with hot dry ghibli winds, have helped spread fires in both the Jebel Akhdar and the Jebel Nafusa in the west of the country.
The Italian embassy has confirmed that the Libyan embassy in Rome has contacted the authorities there about sending water bombers.
Agriculture Minister Ahmed Al-Urufi has also been asked by Beida Council to take quick measures to ensure there are aircraft for civil defense in the area in future.
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