Fires in refugee camps | Two tents burnt down in northern Idlib, killing three children

Syrian Observatory activists have documented the killing of three children after the burning down of two tents accommodating displaced people in Al-Salama refugee camp in Barisha area in the northern countryside of Idlib. The reasons behind the outbreak of fires in the camp have yet to be known whether caused by gas leak inside the camp or the high temperature.

 

On September 4, SOHR sources reported a new crisis deepened the displaced people’s sufferings in north-western Syria, at a time when a heat wave was striking the region for days. Residents and displaced people in Idlib province were suffering from the high prices and lack of ice blocks used for cooling drinking water in the wake of the recent stifling heat. An ice block has been sold for 3,500 SYL, while people found it difficult to get even a small piece of ice because of the crowds in stores. A man had to wait in long lines in order to get only a small piece of ice, not to mention the merchants’ exploitation of the crisis.

 

A day earlier, SOHR sources reported that heat waves struck the northern Syria region for days with high temperature exceeded 40 decrees Celsius, along with power outages in most areas hosting displaced people from different Syrian provinces.

 

As always, the inhabitants of refugee camps in Idlib and Aleppo provinces find them in trouble with every change in weather, especially with the lack of means which may tone down such suffocating heat. Tents in these camps cannot protect the displaced people from the hot summer, as they are made of low quality and light cloth with no isolations blocking the direct sunrays.

 

The recent heat waves worsened the inhumane situation of the displaced people who were forced to leave their areas and obligated to live in such uninhabitable tents where they suffer from the lack of minimum levels of basic necessities.

 

In this context, SOHR sources said that several people passed out due to the heat waves striking the northern Syria region. Observatory activists documented fainting spells of two civilians in a makeshift camp, “Ahl Al-Tah Camp”, in the west of Maarrat Misrin city in northern Idlib.

 

Meanwhile, a lot of people resorted to the shadow of olive trees as their tents were turned into “sauna rooms”, as they described.