Between Popular Volunteerism and Autonomous Administration Solidarity… Kassab Burns and Pleads While Damascus Falters

Kassab – Frontline

Several areas in the countryside of Hama and Latakia witnessed a heavy night as massive wildfires – burning for three consecutive days – ravaged Ras Al-Sha’ara, Anab, Faqrou, and the Beit Yashout road in rural Hama, alongside Al-Yamdhiyah in Jabal Al-Turkman and Deir Mama near Al-Haffah in rural Latakia.

According to a statement by the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) published on its official channels, despite significant challenges posed by the rugged terrain, extreme temperatures, and the absence of firebreaks, teams from the Syrian Civil Defense, forest firefighting units, and volunteer forestry brigades continue intensive efforts to contain and encircle the flames.

On Friday, Foza Youssef, Co-Chair of the Autonomous Administration’s delegation for negotiations with the Syrian government, announced that the Autonomous Administration will dispatch firefighting vehicles to assist in extinguishing the wildfires in Hama and Latakia provinces.

In a post on X, Youssef emphasized the “necessity of collective solidarity to protect forests and provide mutual aid.” She further stressed the importance of “investigating the causes of these recurrent fires,” describing tree burning as a “crime” requiring accountability.

Meanwhile, the Qamishli Firefighting Brigade declared full readiness to answer Kassab residents’ distress call and join firefighting efforts. The brigade affirmed: “Our personnel will be wherever duty calls – standing with civilians against disasters to protect lives and property.”

Amidst resurging flames fueled by high winds – now spreading to the Shatha area in Al-Ghab Plain and reigniting in rural Jableh – popular volunteer efforts (Faza’at) in Kassab and Latakia remain on the frontlines. Volunteers, armed with basic tools and collective resolve, formed human shields against the advancing inferno. These grassroots initiatives, born of genuine communal consciousness, have reclaimed the term’s true meaning: voluntary solidarity to protect life and land – not a regime-manipulated “volunteerism” machine that drafts civilians into its sectarian wars and massacres under hollow slogans.

While the Thermidorian regime weaponizes “national duty” rhetoric to glorify death, the people of the coast have transformed Faza’at into an act of resistance for life: rescuing forests that form Syria’s natural lungs and defending the ravaged livelihoods of farmers plundered by the regime’s policies. This fundamental distinction reaffirms the priority of popular self-organization as a revolutionary alternative to the repressive state apparatus.

— Frontline”