Fire raged across 150 hectares of woodlands, mostly in Iran's northern provinces during Norouz (the Iranian New Year holidays from March 21 to April 2).
The latest data released by Forests, Range and Watershed Management Organization show 10% of the forest areas suffered serious damage.
According to Colonel Qasem Sabzali, the head of protection unit at FRWO, the blaze did not reach tree trunks and was smothered at the ground level, thanks to fire extinguishing efforts, ISNA reported.
Reportedly, fire mostly victimized woodlands in the northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan. Less noticeable incidents also happened in central and southern provinces, including Kerman, Isfahan and Fars.
"Unfortunately, all the wildfire incidents were directly caused by careless livestock breeders, hunters and tourists failing to control their campfires," the official said.
"A blow of warm winds at the beginning of spring fueled the fires and scattered them to less accessible areas, making it more challenging for firefighters to control the blaze."
Weather forecasting organizations had earlier warned people about the risks of wildfire in the early days of the Iranian year due to the warm winds.
Firemen contained the wildfire using helitanks.
Sabzali noted that thanks to preventive schemes to combat wildfires, crisis management at the time of forest blazes has improved.
"Forming rapid response teams in every province, equipping park rangers with fire extinguishers and installing monitoring systems seem to have helped reduce the damage caused by forest fires," he said.
The other measure taken to save vulnerable areas from wildfires has been equipping the sites with real-time satellite imagery that allows local authorities to identify areas most likely to suffer from fire incidents.
Although the data released so far have shown a noticeable decline in fire incidents over the past several years, forests continue to be ravaged by fire.
Forests cover only 7% of Iran’s landmass, which means protecting them is of utmost importance.
