Wildfires that have been burning for over two weeks in northern Iran’s steep, densely wooded Hyrcanian forests flared again on Monday, prompting the deployment of helicopters and fresh ground crews, as officials warned that heat, wind and dry vegetation were fuelling the blaze.
Flames flared again in the hard-to-reach Elit area near the town of Marzanabad in Chalous after an earlier blaze had been brought under control, local media reported. Officials said the new outbreak forced the deployment of helicopters and fresh ground crews to try to prevent the fire from spreading across the slopes.
“A large number of protection units, local people, Basij volunteers and mountaineers are present at the scene to contain and extinguish the fire,” said Mehrdad Khazaei-Poul, head of the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Department in Mazandaran, according to ISNA news agency. “The area is very difficult to access and the steep, rocky terrain and high elevation have made the work harder.”
Khazaei-Poul said at least one helicopter had been sent from Tehran to support firefighting efforts, and provincial officials later reported that two aircraft had been dispatched with support from the defense ministry, with a third on standby.
“Without the help of firefighting helicopters, it is not possible for ground forces alone to fully control this fire,” he said.
Yahya Yousef-pour, the governor of Chalous, said fresh teams were being rotated into the area to relieve exhausted crews.
“Several operational groups, emergency services and local residents have been deployed to the area,” he told the official IRNA news agency. “Our goal is to minimize damage to natural resources and to control the fire as quickly as possible.”
The fires have broken out in parts of the Hyrcanian or Caspian forests, a band of ancient broadleaf woodland that stretches like a green belt along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and the northern slopes of the Alborz mountains.
The forests, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site, host dozens of tree and shrub species and cover large areas of Mazandaran, which has more than one million hectares of forest – about 53% of Iran’s northern woodlands.
Officials said warm weather, low humidity and accumulations of dry leaves and dead wood had allowed small fires to spread quickly in recent days.
“Rising temperatures and the drying of vegetation have increased the likelihood of new fires and the spread of existing ones in forests and rangelands,” Khazaei-Poul said. “This year, higher temperatures and lower humidity have dried the soil and vegetation, so the risk of fire is greater.”
Environmental officials said the fires have also raised concerns for wildlife in the Hyrcanian ecosystem.
“There are many valuable plant and animal species in this region,” said Hadi Kia-Daliri, a senior Environment Department official. “Our first priority is to put out the fire, and the survival of many animal species now depends on how quickly we can control it.”
Authorities said protection units remained on high alert along the forest front in western Mazandaran, where several smaller surface fires have been reported in recent days.
