Turkey battles wildfires amid strong winds, heatwave
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP)—Firefighters battled blazes across Turkey on Monday, as the country sweltered in a summer heatwave, officials said.
Wildfires over the past week have led to at least 14 deaths in Turkey and sparked the evacuations of 19 villages and more than 3,500 people elsewhere from their homes.
Turkey’s latest heatwave peaked with temperatures above 40C across much of the country last week and even reached a record 50.5C on Friday in the far southeast, in Silopi, near the Iraqi and Syrian borders.
Firefighters battled blazes around the city of Bursa in the northwest, the Karabuk region in the north and the Kahramanmaras region in the south.
“Five fires have been brought under control in four provinces,” said Agriculture and Forestry minister Ibrahim Yumakli.
But he said the efforts were hampered by strong winds that are fanning the flames.
“Given the size and intensity of the fires, the state’s ability to respond quickly to such disasters is sometimes limited,” he said.
“If there is wind, there are no planes and it takes hours, even days, for you to take control,” he said.
In recent days, 19 villages had to be evacuated in the Safranbolu region in the north, and more than 3,500 people around Bursa.
A firefighter battling the flames died of a heart attack on Saturday.
Three more people died Sunday in an accident involving a water tanker truck that was used to battle a blaze, the Bursa governorate announced.
On Wednesday, a wildfire killed at least 10 forest workers and rescuers fighting a blaze near Eskisehir in western Turkey.
