Mohammad Awana spoke quickly and repeated himself often, struggling to describe the scale of the loss he is facing.
“It’s gone, gone, gone, I’m telling you, everything burnt: forests, farmland, olive groves, vegetables. Even the animals weren’t spared,” he said.
The relentless wildfires that have ravaged Syria’s coastal region for the past week have taken a heavy toll on the 68-year-old farmer from Latakia. Syria's worst drought in decades and strong winds have fuelled the flames of the unprecedented blazes.
“Everything we’ve built over decades, forests that took hundreds of years to grow, gone,” Mr Awana added, standing at a distribution point where dozens of residents affected by the disaster were queuing for food parcels.
Like him, thousands of people have been left reeling from the fierce blazes in a region that relies heavily on farming for survival.
Mr Awana said he lost 3,000 square metres of land to the fires, “mostly olives and pomegranates, nothing is left”, he said. It will take years for the trees to recover.
Driving deep into northern Latakia governorate feels like reaching the end of the world. The once lush hills of Syria’s coast have been reduced to barren land. Mountains are covered in black dust, stripped of their vibrant green carpet, and crops lie in ashes.
“This is unprecedented in terms of size and intensity,” said Raed Saleh, Syria’s Minister of Disaster Management and Emergency Response, speaking to The National just a few hundred metres from a forest still ablaze. The area was cordoned off by security forces and civil defence teams due to the danger.
The flames have scorched more than 15,000 hectares of agricultural land and forests, Mr Saleh said, the equivalent of 150 square kilometres – an area larger than Paris.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before. Right now, I can’t estimate the cost of the losses,” he added.
Mr Saleh was the head of the White Helmets, the internationally recognised volunteer rescue organisation that operated in opposition-held parts of Syria, before being appointed as a minister in March. Since the fires broke out, he has remained stationed on the ground with civil defence teams.
The interview was repeatedly interrupted by the sound of landmines exploding in the burning brush.
“Do you hear that?” he said. “You have to see for yourself the level of danger our teams are facing. Their safety remains a priority, as well as of civilians.”
Landmines, extreme heat and lack of resources
On top of battling strong winds, rugged terrain and extreme heat, firefighters are dealing with the deadly legacy of war.
More than a decade of conflict has left Syria heavily contaminated with landmines and other explosive remnants, which have killed hundreds since the fall of Bashar Al Assad's regime in December 2024.
A threat to displaced civilians returning to their homes, these munitions are now a danger to firefighters as they detonate under intense heat.
Firefighters told The National that unexploded ordnance was the main obstacle hindering civil defence operations.
Rescue teams are also ill-equipped to deal with a disaster of this scale. The country is struggling after years of crippling western sanctions against the Assad regime, which were lifted only recently as the interim government led by former rebel fighters gained international recognition.
“Generally, the focus of our needs is on logistical support: diesel, firefighting hoses, spare parts, and bulldozers and heavy engineering equipment,” Mr Saleh said.
Crews from Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have been deployed in Latakia. Syrian authorities on Tuesday appealed to the EU for help. UN teams have been sent to the area to “determine the scale of the disaster”.
The challenges appear not to have affected the morale of the firefighters, who have been working relentlessly for days. Dozens of lorries were seen moving through the affected areas, amid shouts of civil defence teams wrapped in the heavy white smoke from the blazes they are battling.
'It was terrifying'
Mr Saleh said their efforts had stopped the blazes from reaching villages. “So far, there has been no threat to any residential areas,” he said.
Hussein Sbeih, 28, is among the residents who had to leave their village in a hurry. “It started as a small fire, which had ignited the day before. At the time it seemed under control, but suddenly, the entire area was on fire,” he said.
Mazraa Beit Sabeh, his village, was heavily affected, but the flames stopped short of reaching the houses. Most of the village fled on foot, although some residents stayed behind to help civil defence teams, he said.
“I was scared. It was terrifying. The most important thing was to get out safely,” Mr Sbeih said.
The blazes caused some injuries, but the land paid a heavy price.
Mr Sbeih estimated that the village lost about half its agricultural land. Most of the village's olive trees were reduced to ashes. The few that survived have turned yellow from the heat, their branches fading to the colour of straw. Some of them, he said, were 50 years old.
