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Five wildfires were still burning across Turkey’s western and southern coasts on Friday afternoon, as the agriculture ministry warned of elevated fire risk extending into next week and residents in burned areas described losing their homes and livelihoods.
“Five forest fires are continuing,” Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı said. “The fire risk looks set to carry over into next week. Our intervention will continue until every problem has been resolved.”
The communications directorate warned of particular danger in the provinces of Çanakkale, Balıkesir, Bursa, İzmir, Manisa, Aydın, Muğla, Antalya, Mersin and Adana, where high temperatures and strong winds were forecast to persist. Officials said the risk of fires reigniting was significant.
Of 206 fires recorded since Wednesday — when strong winds began fanning blazes across the country — 202 had been fully brought under control by Friday, 133 of them outside forest areas.
The General Directorate of Forestry deployed 28 aircraft, 119 helicopters, 14 drones, 1,953 fire trucks, 2,766 initial response vehicles and 878 pieces of heavy machinery, with teams working around the clock from more than 1,600 positions.
‘We have turned to ashes’
In Bodrum’s Cine district, a popular tourist area, firefighters worked through the night to evacuate animals from four zones. By morning, nine helicopters, three fixed-wing aircraft, 42 fire engines and nine water tenders had taken part.
The fires had by Friday evening damaged or destroyed 65 buildings, almost all in Antalya and Muğla provinces, according to Environment Minister Murat Kurum.
The European Forest Fire Information System put the total area burned in Turkey this year at 22,587 hectares.
For those who lost their homes, the damage is devastating. Arzu Celep, an elderly woman evacuated from one of the affected areas, said, “We have turned to ashes, we have nothing left.”
“My dog is gone, he was more precious to me than my own life,” Celep said. Other residents described fruit and olive groves reduced to ash.
Turkey has suffered increasingly severe wildfires in recent years, driven by drought.
Heavy winter rains had until recently protected vegetation cover in the affected regions, which had largely been spared from fires earlier in the season.
Authorities had banned entry into the highest-risk forests at the start of summer. Yumaklı said the government was working to reduce average emergency response time down to 10 minutes, although it was close to the end goal.
Additional sources • AFP