Hundreds of firefighters are battling forest fires raging in central and eastern Syria as temperatures soar to 40 degrees Celsius in several parts of the country.

Powerful firefighting forces are trying to bring under control a fire that broke out in a forest area in Hama province before it gets bigger, regional forest protection center spokesman Amzad Hamad told the Syrian news agency SANA.

Another fire front is raging in a mountainous area in the neighboring province of Homs, the head of the civil protection service told SANA, underlining that the area is impassable and this makes the work of firefighting forces difficult. The flames threatened the village of Al Marana, forcing residents to leave their homes.

Today’s temperatures were up to six degrees above the national average for the season. The mercury reached 40 degrees Celsius in the historic city of Palmyra and 39 degrees in the capital Damascus, where power outages are common.

In the absence of air conditioners, some women in a Damascus neighborhood tried to cool themselves with portable fans. “We take out sofas, pour water on the soil and turn the fans towards the earth. So, we feel like we are in the Maldives,” says Munira Wassouf with a smile.

Syria’s grain production exceeded 4 million tons before the civil war broke out in 2011, but today it has fallen by nearly 75 percent, partly due to climate change.