They spread to surrounding wooded hills the previous night despite Armenian authorities’ heightened efforts to contain the country’s worst fires in years that broke out at the weekend amid unusually high temperatures.
Photographs posted on social media show that massive flames were visible from Dilijan on Tuesday night. The local government urged town residents not to “panic,” saying that hundreds of firefighters, police and civilian volunteers are hard at work.
In a late-night video appeal, Yerevan-based environmental activist Gor Hovannisian urged citizens to join him and his comrades in participating in the firefighting efforts. The scale of the natural disaster is “terrible,” he said.
“The situation is getting better,” Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service the following morning. “The first two days were bad, but finally the right amount of forces were gathered and everything was organized properly.”
But he also said: “There's an awful lot of smoke, and not much is understood.”
An RFE/RL crew was not allowed to approach a famous Soviet-era sanatorium outside Dilijan which reportedly risked being burned. Its director insisted that the fire has not reached the facility belonging to the Armenian Defense Ministry.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Armenian Interior Ministry, which oversee the national Rescue Service, said the situation in Dilijan and other parts of the northern Tavush province is under control. About 1,000 firefighters, security personnel, forestry workers have been mobilized in Tavush alone, Narek Sargsian said, adding that they are helped by a military helicopter dropping water on burning forests and grassland.
“The technical means at our disposal are sufficient,” Sargsian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “At the moment, Rescue Service units are controlling the situation, and there is no need for any volunteer squads or groups.”
Another affected Tavush community is Navur, a village more than 80 kilometers northeast of Dilijan. Fire reportedly spread to nearby hills on Tuesday, leading dozens of local residents to join the firefighters. The situation has improved since then, according to the village chief, Mher Nigoyan.
“I can only see smoke 3-4 kilometers from our village right now,” said Nigoyan. “There is no fire.”
The Rescue Service reported later in the day that one of its officers died and four others were injured in a car accident that happened when they “performed their duties” in Tavush. It gave no details.
Officials have suggested that the wildfires were caused by a dry and warmer-than-usual weather. Sargsian said the Armenian police are now taking “some measures” to determine whether other factors such as arson were also at play.