High winds hamper fight against wildfire in west Turkey
The fire began around midday on Sunday in the Seferihisar district, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of the resort city of Izmir, fuelled by high winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (75 miles per hour).
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Around 20 homes, which had been evacuated as a precaution, were gutted by the blaze, with only the walls left standing, footage from the private NTV channel showed.
"The wind intensity has decreased but it could pick up. It reached 65 kph overnight which made the work difficult but at daybreak the aerial firefighting teams resumed their work," Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli told reporters.
He said more than 1,000 people had been drafted in to fight the blaze alongside four planes, 14 helicopters and 106 firetrucks.
Four villages and two neighbourhoods had been evacuated as a precaution, and 21 people had sustained light injuries from smoke or other fire-related reasons.
Yumakli said firefighters had been battling 77 fires which erupted on Sunday, fuelled by "very intense winds" which had grounded aerial firefighting teams in the Izmir region due to "the risk of crashing".
Of that number, only a third were in forested areas, he said.
Since June 1, firefighters across Turkey had battled 1,459 fires, of which 569 in forested areas and 890 elsewhere, the minister said.
Izmir airport, which temporarily suspended flights on Sunday, resumed operations, Turkish media reported.
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