BEIRUT: Lebanese Army and Civil Defense units worked on extinguishing numerous fires around the country on Friday, as weather forecasts predicted a heat wave would continue in the coming days.

The Civil Defense office at the Interior Ministry said its units were sent on 81 firefighting tasks.

A large fire broke out in the villages of Ouyoun Aashash and Hilan in Zghorta in north Lebanon due to excessive heat. The flames expanded throughout fruit fields and woodlands, and spread through the valley of Jabal Torbol, reaching the other side of the mountain.

Civil Defense units worked on extinguishing the fire but had to call in the Lebanese Army for support. “However, the flames could not be put out, despite hours of work,” the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported early in the afternoon.

Two more fires erupted in south Lebanon and in Beirut, but they were not caused by natural factors.

A field caught fire on the outskirts of Zawtar al-Sharqieh in Nabatieh, after several Israeli cluster bombs exploded. Lebanese Army soldiers had been at work dismantling the explosives, which were among the remains of the summer 2006 war with Israel.

In Beirut, a blaze broke out at 10:30 am in the sixth underground floor of the commercial Sodeco Center on Damascus Road, according to the NNA.

Units from the Beirut Fire Department rushed to the scene and launched investigations to reveal the causes.

Inquiries showed that the warehouse contained wood panels placed next to electricity cables, which could have started the fire.

Firefighting personnel struggled to extinguish the fires before the flames could reach power generators and nearby fuel containers.

Friday’s blazes followed the destruction of about 150 acres of orchards and woodland a day earlier.

The Lebanese Army said that the damage had been caused by fires in the south Lebanon village of Hounine, the Bekaa villages of Rashaya, Kamed al-Lawz and al-Bira, as well as in the north Lebanon villages of Beit al-Hajj and Hrayqis.

Army personnel were called in to extinguish the blazes.

Fires increase during the summer season in Lebanon due to the rise in temperatures. The risk is shared by neighboring countries, including Israel where 1,000 fires have broken out in the last three months, according to an article published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday.

The coming days in Lebanon will continue to witness an increase in temperatures, according to the meteorological department at the Civil Aviation Department.

The department’s forecast anticipated elevated temperatures on Saturday, varying between 24 degrees Celsius and 35 degrees Celsius on the coast, 22 degrees Celsius and 34 degrees Celsius in the mountains, 22 degrees Celsius and 33 degrees Celsius in the Cedars and 22 degrees Celsius and 42 degrees Celsius in the Bekaa.