The first week of July saw an unprecedented number of wild fires rage across the country: 185 in three days. The Lebanese authorities struggled to contain the unexpected fires; the three firefighting Sirkosky helicopters, acquired this year, still weren’t ready to be used so early in the dry summer season. From Beirut, smoke from two fires could be seen billowing off the Chouf and Metn, leaving black scars in its wake. From Zgharta to Tebnin, the fires burnt fruit groves, olive trees, grassland and pine forest. The damage costs farmers and others millions of dollars per year — up to $10 million to replant 2,000 hectares of land. The fires are suspected of being started by farmers, charcoal collectors, trash burners or campers, despite a law that comes into effect every summer banning fires in rural areas. It was the same in 2007, when fires destroyed 4,031 hectares of forest
