Algeria's 2026 Wildfires: Inside the Civil Protection's Historic Mobilization as the Death Toll Climbs

Algeria has been fighting one of the most severe wildfire seasons in its recent history since early July 2026. A new wave of fires struck the country's northeast this week, with a death toll that has continued to climb by the hour. Behind those numbers stands a Civil Protection (Protection Civile) force that has been mobilized without pause for nearly two months, under heat that has repeatedly topped 48°C.

A deadly week in the country's northeast

On the night of 26 to 27 August, wildfires tore through several provinces in northeastern Algeria, most severely Jijel, Béjaïa, and Tizi Ouzou. An initial toll released on 27 August put the count at 12 dead and 54 injured, with 154 active fires recorded nationwide in a single day. By the following day, local authorities in the municipality of Beni Habibi, Jijel province, reported a far higher preliminary toll: 73 deaths, including a mass burial of 39 victims held in Djemaa Beni Habibi. Search operations are ongoing, and this toll may still rise.

Precautionary evacuations were carried out in the municipalities of Ouled Yahia Khadrouche and Chekfa, in Jijel, where both airborne and ground-based firefighting resources were deployed simultaneously, including a Mi-26 firefighting helicopter and two AT-802 aircraft. Fires were brought under control in the provinces of Skikda, El Tarf, Bouira, Tizi Ouzou, and Tebessa.

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A mobilization that has run since the start of summer

This deadly week adds to an already exceptional season. On the very first day of summer 2026, Algeria logged 91 fires in a single day, under a heatwave that had already surpassed 48°C. A report released on 28 July by Algeria's Directorate General of Civil Protection recorded 1,968 fires extinguished since the start of the heatwave, including 667 forest, scrubland, and brushland fires and 1,301 crop, orchard, and palm grove fires. Six people had died and more than 100 had been hospitalized by that point. The provinces of Béjaïa, Skikda, El Tarf, Bouira, Guelma, and Annaba had seen the most active fire outbreaks.

To meet the crisis, more than 19,000 Civil Protection personnel were mobilized nationwide, supported by the army and aerial firefighting assets. A reinforced surveillance system, including drones and satellite imagery, was announced for the rest of the season, a system this week's late-August fires have now tested again.

Two months on the line under extreme heat

What sets Algeria's 2026 season apart is its sheer duration. Since early July, Civil Protection crews have run one intervention after another under heat that has repeatedly crossed 48°C, on Mediterranean scrubland and forest terrain that is often difficult for heavy vehicles to reach. That combination, extreme ambient heat, protective gear limiting sweat evaporation, sustained physical exertion on operations that can stretch over several days, reproduces exactly the exertional heat stroke risk profile documented this season on the major fires in Greece, Croatia, Spain, and France.

Cool First, Transport Second, for a summer with no relief

The ACSM Expert Consensus Statement 2023 and IOC guidance (Hosokawa Y, Racinais S et al., BJSM 2021) are unambiguous: when exertional heat stroke is suspected in a responder, cold water immersion must begin on scene, before transport, with the goal of bringing core temperature below 39°C within 30 minutes of collapse. Casa et al. (Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 2007) measured this method's cooling rate at 0.35°C per minute, roughly ten times faster than wet towels or ice packs. The Korey Stringer Institute, tracking more than 401 cases treated under this protocol, reports a 100 percent survival rate when temperature drops below 40°C within that window.

For a force that has been engaged without pause for nearly two months, the ability to treat a suspected exertional heat stroke case in a responder immediately, on scene, without waiting for transport to a fixed facility, becomes an operational priority in its own right.

Equipment built to keep up over the long haul

That is the gap Kollder One was built to close. A stainless steel emergency cooling tub, set up by a single responder in under 2 minutes, on any terrain, including scrubland or rural areas that are hard to reach. Packed for transport with Kollder Go, it weighs 11.1 kg and lets an advanced rehab sector stay operational throughout an extended deployment. Civil Protection services facing increasingly long and intense fire seasons can request a Kollder quote to equip their advanced rehab positions.