(MENAFN- Jordan Times) The Ministry of Agriculture will issue a report on Sunday measuring the volume of damage caused by a fire in the Jordan Valley's Adasiyeh District on Thursday, a government official said on Saturday.
The fire, which spread into Jordan from Israel on Thursday afternoon, was ignited by the Israeli authorities to get rid of dry grass in the border area, Agriculture Ministry Spokesperson Nimer Haddadin, said on Saturday.
Haddadin told The Jordan Times that the government will contact Israeli authorities via diplomatic channels and demand compensation for damage.
"The report will list how many trees and crops were damaged, as well as the area of land affected by the fire," he said, highlighting that firefighters from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Civil Defence Department managed to contain the blaze by Thursday night.
"It took us several hours to extinguish the fire, because the area is heavily covered with trees, bushes and dry grass. Our teams remained on alert after the fire was extinguished to ensure it wouldn't re-ignite," Haddadin underscored.
"Initial reports indicate that more than 400 dunums of land were affected. Forest trees and farms planted with citrus trees were damaged," the official noted.
In 2010, local authorities paved a side road on the east bank of the Jordan River as a firebreak.
The measure aimed at preventing fires that erupt every summer in the border area, which witnessed two fires in 2009 and more than three in 2010.
A firebreak (also called a fire road, fire line or fuel break) is a gap in vegetation" that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire, according to web sources.
The Jordan Valley's total agricultural area consists of 300,000 dunums, around 190,000 of which are planted with vegetables and the rest with bananas, grains and citrus fruit.
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