LATAKIA, Syria — United Nations teams have deployed Sunday to the Syrian coast, where firefighters are battling wildfires for a fourth day.

U.N. Resident and Humanitarian coordinator in Syria Adam Abdelmoula said in a statement that the fast-spreading blazes in the northwestern province of Latakia “have forced hundreds of families to flee their homes, while vast tracts of agricultural land and vital infrastructure have been destroyed.”

U.N. teams are “conducting urgent assessments to determine the scale of the disaster and to identify the most immediate humanitarian needs,” he said.

Firefighting teams from Turkey and Jordan have joined Syrian civil defense teams, providing support from the air with helicopters.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported that emergency crews are attempting to prevent the blazes from reaching the al-Frunloq natural reserve, with its “large, interconnected forests.”

Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh called the situation “extremely tragic.”

— The Associated Press