In Syria, blazes fueled by high temperatures broke out Friday in the provinces of Homs, Tartus and Latakia, where at least three people died, according to the health ministry.

Several families had to flee residential areas near the fires, according to media reports.

Syrian Agriculture Minister Mohammed Hassan Qatana said “a total of 156 fires” had broken out, most of them in Latakia and Tartus in the west of the country, state news agency SANA reported.

He said they were brought under control on Sunday.

SANA reported that firefighters and civil defense personnel backed by army helicopters were still active in the areas.

Latakia governor Ibrahim Khader Al-Salem said that “civil defense teams, supported by army units and the population, are now in control of all the fires in the province.”

Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous said recovery work was underway, along with efforts to support those who had been forced to flee their homes.

In neighboring Lebanon, more than 100 forest fires that had raged since Thursday were also completely under control, a civil defense source told AFP.

Authorities have yet to reveal the full extent of the damage from the fires in both countries.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said swathes of forests were devastated and pine trees destroyed.

Images circulating on social media showed forests in south Lebanon’s areas of Jezzine, Nabatieh and Tyre engulfed in flames. In Tyre, UNIFIL helicopters were deployed to extinguish the fires as they edged toward residents’ homes.

While the fires have primarily caused material damage, several volunteers were reported suffocating in Tyre’s Qana village, according to a statement from the state-run National News Agency. Two civilians and one firefighter were wounded by an undetonated mine that caught fire and exploded in the southern village of Aita al-Shaab. One civilian and one firefighter were moderately wounded while the other civilian sustained light injuries.

“The fire index, according to the early warning system of the Chouf Cedar Reserve, indicates a continued high risk of fire outbreak. Please be careful and be responsible, and in accordance with the law, do not set fire near the trees for any reason,” The Chouf Biosphere Reserve warned on Twitter.

Almost a year earlier, Lebanon witnessed devastating forest fires that ravaged the country’s mountains and caused irreparable damage to forests that could take upward of 20 or 30 years to undo. Temperatures recorded at the time were at least 3 to 4 degrees higher than the maximum average temperatures in October over the past 150 years.

Compared to last year, however, the average temperature has been in its normal range of 35 degrees Celsius, a source from the Meteorology Department at Rafik Hariri International Airport told The Daily Star.

The cause of wildfires is most likely due to human activity in these areas, exacerbated by high temperatures and low humidity levels typically witnessed this time of year, according to the Meteorology Department.

Lebanon is grappling with the worst economic crisis since the Civil War which has forced many who lost their jobs in the city to migrate to rural areas, increasing human activity in these regions.

The country loses an average of 1,200 to 1,500 hectares of forest (12-15 square kilometers) a year from wildfires, and several hundred more from urbanization.