Massive Penjwen Fire Controlled After Three-Day Battle
After a three-day battle, a massive fire on the Penjwen border that burned 1,000 donums and injured two volunteers is controlled. One person has been arrested.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – A massive and destructive fire that raged for three days across the border areas of Penjwen has finally been brought under complete control, officials confirmed, following an exhaustive effort by firefighting teams and local volunteers. In a significant development, authorities have arrested one individual in connection with the blaze, which scorched approximately one thousand donums of land and left two people injured.
Hemen Ibrahim, the governor of Penjwen, announced the successful containment of the fire in an exclusive interview with Kurdistan24 on Saturday.
"With the cooperation of teams from the Forestry and Environment Police Department of Sulaimani province, as well as the fire department and volunteer citizens, we were able to completely control the fire on the Penjwen border and prevent its further spread," Ibrahim stated.
The announcement brought relief after a harrowing period that saw the inferno threaten local communities and overwhelm initial response efforts.
Concurrently, the Forestry and Environment Police Department of Sulaimani province confirmed on Saturday that one person has been taken into custody on charges of involvement in starting the fire, which first ignited for reasons under investigation on Thursday, August 28, in several border villages.
The struggle to subdue the flames was a perilous and demanding operation, as detailed in earlier reports from the region.
As the fire spread uncontrollably on Friday, officials in the Penjwen district had issued an urgent appeal for assistance. By that point, the blaze had already consumed nearly a thousand donums of vital forest, pastures, and vegetation and was dangerously approaching residential areas.
The human cost of the incident became tragically clear when two volunteer firefighters were severely injured while battling the flames. In a statement to Kurdistan24 on Friday, Governor Ibrahim identified the injured individuals as Bestun Abdullah and Alan Yusuf, who were both transported to hospitals in Sulaimani for urgent medical treatment.
He noted at the time that Bestun Abdullah’s health condition was considered unstable.
The response to the crisis was a testament to community solidarity, with civil defense teams and the forest and environmental police working alongside the Melakawa Organization for the Environment. They were joined by a large contingent of local citizens who volunteered to confront the dangerous blaze.
The gravity of the situation prompted a direct public appeal from Sardar Ahmed, the Director of the Penjwen Forest Police. Speaking through Kurdistan24, Ahmed called on citizens of the district to voluntarily go to the fire site to help teams try to control the flames in the border areas of Halalawa and Maso villages.
In a simultaneous plea, he urged the government and other relevant authorities to provide all necessary resources to bring the fire under control as soon as possible, warning, "The fire is spreading and approaching villages and residential areas."
Amid the widespread devastation and the organized response, the incident also highlighted individual acts of compassion. A poignant image from the scene captured a local resident in Penjwen holding a hedgehog they had rescued from the encroaching flames.
🦔A local resident from Penjwen, Sulaimani Province, rescues a hedgehog from the wildfires that have been raging in the district’s forests for several days!
— Kurdistan 24 English (@K24English) August 30, 2025
Small acts of compassion remind us of the bond between humans and wildlife!
📷: Handed to Kurdistan24 pic.twitter.com/rPci3Oeg5n
The rescue served as a powerful reminder of the fire's devastating impact on the region's wildlife, an often-overlooked toll of such disasters, and underscored the deep connection between the local community and their natural environment. Such small acts of kindness brought a moment of hope amid the destruction, illustrating the bond between humans and the wildlife they share the land with.
Firefighting efforts were also complicated by the treacherous terrain, a legacy of the Iran-Iraq war. Governor Ibrahim explained that the presence of "many mines and explosives" in the area made controlling the fire exceptionally difficult, placing response teams at constant risk.
The hazardous conditions hampered access to the blaze and slowed down containment operations. He also noted that aerial assistance had not been requested on Friday due to a separate, unrelated helicopter crash incident in Sulaimani that had diverted aviation resources.
This devastating fire in Penjwen is the latest in a series of similar incidents to strike the Kurdistan Region.
It occurred less than two weeks after another major fire broke out on the night of August 17-18 in the villages of Chnar and Mordin in Halabja province.
That blaze resulted in the deaths of a 28-year-old man, Ari Mukhtar, and a police officer, while injuring two others. The Halabja fire scorched an estimated five thousand donums of vegetation, killed a large number of wild animals, and caused significant damage to six area villages, underscoring the severe and escalating danger posed by wildfires in the region.
