Two Turkish firefighting planes, one helicopter and eight personnel will arrive in Iran on Saturday to help quell fires in the Hyrcanian forest in the country's north, Iranian environment chief Shina Ansari said on Friday.
“There are warnings that the fire spread risk is high and we need to act accordingly,” official media cited Ansari as saying.
The blaze in the Elit area ongoing since last week, fueled by wind and dry conditions. Iranian helicopters and ground teams deployed round-the-clock, but rugged terrain has hampered efforts.
Iran seeks international aid as the massive wildfire rages in UNESCO-listed Hyrcanian forest near the town of Chalous.
“Heartbreaking scenes from Elit, Iran, where wildfire is damaging parts of the ancient Hyrcanian forests — a UNESCO World Heritage treasure and one of Earth’s last temperate rainforests,” Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health posted on X.
“Iranians are losing a natural heritage older than Persian civilization,” he added.
Authorities said protection units remained on high alert along the forest front in western Mazandaran, where several smaller fires have been reported in recent days.
Iran's Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref ordered on Friday urgent provision of firefighting equipment and resources for the ongoing Elit forest wildfire.
The Hyrcanian Forests stretch along the southern Caspian Sea coast in Iran and Azerbaijan. This ancient temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion dates back 25-50 million years, surviving past ice ages as a refugium.
They host over 3,200 vascular plant species, 150 endemic and 180 bird species, plus mammals like the Persian leopard, brown bear, lynx and Caspian red deer.
Wildfires have been burning for over two weeks as officials warned that heat, wind and dry vegetation were fueling the blaze.
