“According to new figures released on Thursday, at least 38 people have died in Algeria’s violent forest fires in recent days,” French news agency AFP said, according to official sources and testimony from journalists interviewed by the agency.

The death toll from the fires has risen to 30 in the Far East region of Tarfa near the border with Tunisia, five in Souk Ahras, two women in Setif (east) and one person in Guelma, also in the east. Civil protection, local journalists and An-Nahar TV channel.

In turn, Algerian Interior Minister Kamal Beljoud confirmed that “his country has used every human and material means to put out these raging fires,” explaining that “some of the fires that broke out were fabricated, while others were natural.”

The General Directorate of Civil Protection of Algeria reported 39 fires in 14 provinces.

Firefighters are still trying to use helicopters to localize a number of fires that threaten residents of states in the east of the country.

Algerians fear a repeat of the fire scenario the country witnessed last year in several of the country’s coastal states that killed 90 people.